I rode the loop round Beinn Fhada from Morvich on Friday, 30km with only a couple of 100m on road, and once you start the climb out of Glen Lichd it’s pretty much all singletrack all the rest of the way.
Looking up the 1st climb out of Glen Lichd heading into the head of Glen Affric.
Still climbing but at least this was on the bikes, skirting round this.
The final descent from Bealach an Sgairne is, for me, the best trail I’ve ridden in the UK and possibly the best full stop. It drops from 520m to sea level in 6km all on singletrack, manages to throw in rocky bits, gully bits, switchbacks, flowy bits, wooded bits, heathery singletrack bits, exposure, epic views and pretty much all rideable.
Starting here
Down this
and this
We’d done Torridon earlier in the week and the Annat descent was good but this was another level altogether yet when I searched for it I couldn’t really find any mention of it. So having whet my appetite for really good really long natural tech descents where beats it?
OK so a bit more info then. Start from the Kintail ranger centre immediately after the campsite there is a section of singletrack running through the woods that drops you out at the start of the landrover track running up Glen Lichd. Follow that about 6km to the head of the valley (this has the 5 sisters of Kintail to your right and Beinn Fhada to your left), at the head of the valley follow the singletrack up through the col on the left, this is about 2km gaining 300m, some rideable some pushable, some is hike a bike. You pop out at Camban Bothy and from there down is a mixture of rocky single and double track almost to the youth hostel, just before that hang a left up a vague sheeptrack that turns into a good laid crushed rock singletrack for a couple of km before running out leaving a bog hike for a bit to reach the lochan, there may be a better path a little further up the slope but it doesn’t join on. From the lochan head up to the Bealach an Sgairne, on the left some rideable again but most definitely hike a bike at the end. Refuel and then enjoy the descent, it starts out with a few rocky sections in the valley before the valley floor drops away to leave a steep exposed rocky section, the trail eases off a bit before some alpine style switchbacks and then you end up on a lovely flowy techy run for about 4km through morrs, then heather, then silver birch befor popping out into farmland at the point you started from.
It looked a lot more miserable when I did the decent too! (As part of a trip through Glen Affric).
To be honest we did it after a lot of recent rainfall and it was pretty miserable. Bog-walking almost the whole way from the Youth Hostel to the loch at the bottom of the Bealach an Sgairne. The descent didn’t quite make up for that for me, and it wasn’t as good as Torridon imo. But I’d still like to give it another chance and do the loop as described above.
There’s been some work put into the path from the YH to about a km short of the lochan. It’d been pretty wet the week before and it wasn’t too bad going.
Torridon was good but the descent for me was just a bit point and blast and lacking the tech and exposure.
Actually – I would kinda agree. The Lakes are quite different to much of Scotland. Access issues asides, the loops in the Highlands are usually much longer, more remote, higher and more committing.
Both are fantastic venues though – I always feel that Snowdonia is perhaps more similar to the Lakes than the Highlands.
My folks live a mile or so from the end of that trail and I stay at the East of Glen Affric. I really should ride West that way sometime soon.
I’ve done it various other routes, just not through Bealach na Sgairne, although I’ve walked up there loads of times.
Great pics
Spend a week in April every year at Tommich Holidays. Just park the car there and it never shifts all week. There are fire tracks that cut from there across the the south side of loch Beinn a’ Mheadhoin and loch Affric. You can cycle all week without your tires ever touching tarmac! The whole area is stunning and awsome for mountain biking at all levels. Find new single track every time we go, definitely best week of the year for me.
Lovely trail that. It used to be a bog getting across to the top of it, glad they’ve (apparently) improved that. There are better descents in Torridon though (not necessarily Annat!).