Altnaharra riding?

In Altnaharra next month for a couple of days, and likely to have a few free hours. Think I might chuck the road bike in the book for some riding, knowing that you can’t go too far wrong with road riding if you don’t know the area.

I could take the MTB though, if anyone can recommend some a nice nearby route? Doesn’t need to be gnarly, just a good ride on decent trails (I’m not fussed for plotting something based off an OS map which might turn out to be a bog fest).

You’re not too far from Golspie if you drive there, and if you’ve never ridden it you need to try it.

In the other direction, there is some great riding/pushing from Gobernuisgach Lodge (8 miles West of Altnaharra). It is part of the Highland Trail Race route, the ride up Glen Golly and the descent off the Bealach Horn into Achfary. I don’t know if the return leg is any good, but the descent into Achfary was brilliant.

The Glen Golly/Bealach Horn route mentioned by AlasdairMc is in the second volume of the VP guide. I think the route back is via an old stalking track and is in reasonable nick. There’s a video on Ian Barrington’s blog of the Glen Golly to Achfary part. It’s a video of the HTR550.

The road from Altnaharra past Gobernuisgach and Ben Hope feels like the remotest road in Britain – our lane is wider!

Thanks guys – some good shouts. Decisions, decisions. I could maybe do Golspie on the way up, and have a look at Glen Golly late afternoon one day. Or maybe the roads would be lovely too….

Did that Glen Golly / Bealach Horn ride last August. It was spectacular but much of the riding was on estate tracks which had suffered quite a bit of flood damage last year so weren’t brilliant to ride. That said, I would do it again as it had a very wild feel and the corrie it passes through is incredible. It depend if you like big days out or want easy thrills.

Hmm, stumbled across your strava detail for that ride Alasdair (via the link to the segment on Ian’s blog). Given how long it took you guys to hike up that climb, it’s probably a bit much for this day. I’ll be out for a couple of hours after doing Ben Hope in the morning, so probably only want to be out for 3 hours or so. Those tracks have given me something to tinker around with though, ta.

Plenty of lovely roads around there, great scenery, hardly any traffic. You could do a nice loop around by Strath Naver, Tongue and Loch Loyal.

And the Crask Inn is nice.