Anyone done it? Is it legal? What’s the best way to reach the top without just going up and down the same way? I was there walking at the weekend and it struck me that the trail leading down the valley (from the saddle below Goat Fell, I think it was) towards Brodick would be a mint section of singletrack.

Is it legal?

It’s in Scotland, fill your boots*

*responsibly

Just what I wanted to hear, tomd. So, anyone ridden it?

Me!

I rode up to the saddle (last bit a carry) then looked down the other side which looked steep and not spd shoe compatible and thought, **** that! It was years ago mind and my perceptions of steepness have changed a lot since then so fill yer boots! 🙂

I used to live on Arran, you can ride up Glen Sannox from which is the other side of the saddle, but will need quite a long ‘hike a bike’ to get up a very steep scramble, up to the saddle!! Glen Sannox can also be very boggy and wet and pretty dull!! The ride down Glen Rosa from the saddle is pretty good in places, I have only ever ridden from Brodick to the saddle and back!! Hope this helps.

Sanny – lol, might have know you’d have done it!
Cheers both for the info. We hiked down (no bikes) from the saddle into Glen Sannox and I reckoned it would be a tough but doable carry up. Reckon riding down would be bloody sketchy if not impossible (we did have massive packs though, and it was wet and windy).
Amazing scenery – love the rock slabs.

[/url] Les up the Whin Dyke by descoolio hughes, on Flickr[/img]

It’s a bit of a scramble!.

5 of us did it 2 weeks ago, bit of an epic due to the weather. In short, from the ferry, along the road to Sannox, and then the singletrack from there to Laggan cottage. Up and over a cracking descent to Lochranza, then the road back to Sannox. Lunch at the tea room, then up glen Sannox to the scramble pictured above.

And it is a scramble, we ended up forming a chain and handing the bike up to each other, as you need both hands to get yourself up, even without a bike. The glen rosa descent is ace, I won’t tell you too much about it, go ride it for yourself.

That route is around 50k, good day out.

Greg.

Nobeer – sounds like a good route, cheers. We came down that same chute the other day and it was tough with 70L packs on in the wet. I can well believe it’s ‘interesting’ with a bike. Nice photo. We walked up the track from Glen Rosa and all the time I was thinking it would make a nice descent. Now I just need to get myself back up to that neck of the woods. Last weekend was my first visit, but I thought it was ace – great wild camping, great swimming, great beer.

Aye, if you were there, you’ll know that it is actually as steep as it looks in the pic!.

Greg – respect! I struggled to shove the wife up that section let alone give consideration to lugging a bike too!

I went up a good bit of glen rosa before, no idea how much, would need to go back to refresh my memory, it was a few years ago now, mind it getting too rocky though so I just chucked it and headed back down, bottom half was enjoyable anyhow.