I know I am asking a question about the eeeeeeevil mbr, but there was a sort of top 10 uk trails article, with best natural and man made stuff, there was one in bonny scotchland called the carian path or something, anyone shed any light on this?

Ciaran Path, Kinlochleven

There you go! It's challenging.

It'll all end in tears.

You see the "grave yard" marked on the map, just below the dam?

That's where unsuccessful riders are buried.

Possibly the only "natural trail" in the country that has a section lined with catch netting I'd like to give it a crack but it's clear I'd be horribly killed.

Classic route, when it rains it becomes a river.

Looks ace, it's on the list!

brilliant route. biggish day out would be devils staircase, over the top, when you hit the access road turn right and follow it along to black loch reservoir dam. at the dam you, er, could climb over the fence/gate and QUICKLY cross it while no one is looking (nobody there). ahem.
then turn right, you end up on the above path down to kinlochleven, then take the access road up and out of kinlochleven past the hydro station back towards the dam to where you met the original accessroad/devils staircase junction. staircase back up and over to the bottom of it.

blummin brilliant route – techy, feels remote, longish day in the saddle (esp in the bad weather we had) think we arrived back at the car with 10 mins before it got dark. will be doing it again!!!

oops, just described the route in stuartie_c's map.

its ace.

Possibly the only "natural trail" in the country that has a section lined with catch netting
enduro motor bike trail IIRC.

Ace ride, truly a big day out in the mountains.

I did it via Mamore Lodge and the Eilde lochs, brilliant loop and I only saw a couple of people on the whole day.

This route AlasdairMc?

I think this is a tougher day – certainly more remote and you arrive at the descent pretty knackered only to discover it's not all downhill!

I think this is a tougher day
tougher if you do kingshouse>rannoch station>corrour>blackwater>KLL>devils>kingshouse

boom!

Stuartie_c – that's the one, but Marty's looks intriguing once it dries up a bit.

How is Kingshouse to Rannoch, I've heard it's quite indistinct?

I did kingshouse to rannoch a few years ago – very very boggy in the middle section in the woodland. Not a nice ride but that was with camping kit.

The pipeline that is marked on the map running from the blackwater dam north west – is that a route you can follow? Or is there nothing on the ground? Save dropping into kinlochleven and climbing back again if heading for Loch treig from the kingshouse

balls, wrote a long answer to TJ, and then realised i'd got confused.

from the dam we followed those pipes a little, getting us onto the really good singletrack. but afaik its not followable along its length.

Cheers.

i could, of course be wrong btw. but it seemed to fade out along its length, and the pipes themselves weren't really rideable along.

AlasdairMc – one for the end of a dry summer only. and even then it's, er, character building…

Did the Devil's Staircase last year – loved it and would happily go back and do it again. I get the impression here that the Ciaran path might be a level up. Is that so?
I like the sound of your route Hungry Monkey but not sure if I'd fancy the climb back over at the end of the day. Mind you, when we started the descent of the staircase the light was fading fast and it was pitch dark when we rolled into to Kinlochleven without lights. It made me wonder where the name came from – the nature of the path or the fact that in the dark we seemed to be descending further than I thought was mortally possible.

i smell a STW summer ride being planned!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, tasty summer riding

I love that route…we've done it in all weathers and as a night ride. It's one of the best XC loops and it really needs dual ply tyres so you can hammer the descents in confidence.

kunstler – the climb back up was, er, not wholly pleasant. steep access road climb, then the up bit of the staircase included a reasonable amount of pushing. we were very wet and knackered, had had loads of punctures and were running out of time fast…

but it was flipping brilliant. well worth the effort.

Did stuartie_c's route last September. Sorry, but I thought the Ciaran Path was absolutely horrible. Most of the steepish bits were loose eroded rubble so not pleasant to ride, and once you had lost lots of height quickly on those you then had to ride/push the bike up small climbs. Reckon I spent almost as much time pushing up as riding down, and I did ride 95%+ of the down bits.

Oh, and I agree that the slog back up to the ridge to get back down into Glen Coe at the end of a long day was not great

aye, a fair bit of pushing now and again, but at least it wasn't a kenny wilson bog-fest, which most people on here seem to love… 😉

guess it all depends on what you enjoy riding in the end though. i'd do it again without a second thought (well, perhaps with some lights this time).

I hate the "dragging a bike thru bog" type riding – but sometimes its needed to get to the best bits.

I am still looking for that mythical magical singletrack without the hikabike. I haven't found it yet.

Road ride back up the glen to he start of the DS climb, it's the only way, beautiful.

I've also ridden a variation to the Ciaran Path which misses out the really tough stuff at the top (which is pretty rubbly in places). If you follow the pipeline it climbs very gently (it supplies water to the BWR from Loch Eilde Mor) and is mostly rideable if a bit vague in places.

You can then pick up a very steep path from Leiter Bo Fionn which drops you onto the lower, faster bit of the Ciaran Path. It's also pretty testing but less rubbly and misses the uphill bits on the CP "descent"

Also pretty good, but not as relentlessly punishing as the originall route.

If you didn't have a bit of portage it wouldn't be mythical or magical it'd just be overused and knackered. Some of the stuff in Torridon is pretty bloody good and doesn't need much carrying, but its hundreds of miles away for most people and that helps.

Oh, and the climb back out of Kinlochleven is fine. Pace yourself up the steep LRT and you'll find that the Devil's Staircase climb is surprisingly rideable (I reckon 90-95% so). Finishing the day with the descent back to Alltnafeadh is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

I am still looking for that mythical magical singletrack without the hikabike. I haven't found it yet

TJ, I don't believe you haven't found any.
Torridon/Achneshellach circuit (OK a fair amount of pushing but no hike a bike)
Carn Ban Mor – no hike a bike (if you are mega fit)
Ben a Bhuide – as above
etc, etc.

Anyway, MTFU – a bit of hikey bikey has a certain degree of satisfaction if the rewards are worth it

The Devil's Staircase is a rather good descent, too:

Timed it well; lovely summer evening and NO walkers!

Did the descent from BWD earlier in the day and, whilst it was good, I'm not in any rush to do it again – would rather do AlMc's longer route.

Torridon/Achneshellach circuit (OK a fair amount of pushing but no hike a bike)

This route is the best Singletrack climb I have ever done (up to the footbridge)and very close to the hollygrail in terms of superb mountainbiking.

For the height gained it was well worth a little bit of carrying
😀

any time you are not riding counts as hikabike in my book! Pushing carrying whatever. Looking forward to a torridon trip this year tho. Carn ban mor was a "walk a bit / ride a bit" for me.

It must be there somewhere – a magical singletrack downhill that you can ride all the way to the top of. its the Holy grail of mtbing – it must be there somewhere

GaVgAs, what climb is that exactly from Achnashellach?

I'm passing through torridon as part of a camping trip next year and am riding up the River Lair, through Bealach Ban to Bealach na Lice and then down to Annat, is this the route you did?

and just to inject some willy waving in this thread, has anyone cleaned the Staircase from the Glen Coe end?

I've attacked it the last two times and have cleaned a lot of the tricky bits (the steps at the bottom, most of the switchbacks) but haven't the fitness to put together a prolonged attempt, plus there's a pretty deep water bar that would need some trialsing…

The descent down from the Buachaille cliffs is pretty interesting, if only for that feeling of "we really shouldn't be here with bikes!" it was a pretty painful scramble with bikes from Jacksonville though

Here you go: 😀

Did it solo on a cracking day in May. Can't imagine it being much fun in the wet.

Flip! Wow, haven't read all the posts, but thanks a million, it was driving me mad trying to remember what it was called, will read it all later and plan the day of disaster! Going in August, so should be stormy with midges the size of cows everywhere.

TJ Carn ban mor is perfectly ridable up and down, there's a less bumpy way if your in the know too.

jad – nice pics, especially the warning one, definitely one of the most memorable signs I've ever seen.

I did it at the end of July on what started off a cracking day but soon descended into drizzle as I approached the dam. I definitely favour the longer route as there's a bit of everything to it and the ride through Glen Iolarean (sp?) is just sublime. I didn't like the slog up to it, in poor visibility I reckon it would be quite testing if you lose the path.

I would definitely rate it as one of the isolated places I've been on a bike, the feeling of being completely alone is something I'll always remember in a good way.