The best trail in the UK?

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?

You win & I need to know more about it for September.
That looks Fooking awesome on a new level. Done Torridon so I need to do that one.

Gets out *the list* and a pencil, plus goes to the map shelf…

looks good. But street map confused me by taking me to the wrong morvich

Good one, also getting my map and pencil out 🙂

Geldie burn.*
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*just kidding

Do you have a GPX/Strava link at all? Looks amazing though.

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.

Strava Link

Please tell me at least one of you got gpx for this . Looks ace.

Drop me a mail and I’ll get the GPX but really there is no nav on this, pretty much no other trails to worry about.

glad it was all good. what weather as well eh!!

So that’s where the ‘Highlander’ castle is!

Stunning, absolutely stunning. And I thought the Lake District was good. 😳

Walked up the last descent in winter once to get to the top of fhada – truly gruesome day.
Yours looks way better.

Bookmarked. Looks amaze-o.

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.

And I thought the Lake District was good.

It is, but Scotland is like the Lakes on steroids.

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.

Lakes is in a couple of weeks time 😀

>when I searched for it I couldn’t really find any mention of it.<

It’s in Kenny Wilson’s book iirc.

>Bog-walking almost the whole way from the Youth Hostel to the loch at the bottom of the Bealach an Sgairne.<

Umm… you missed the track 😉

^^ Don’t have the book as I don’t get up there often enough to make it worth while, but there’s virtually nothing on the Web.

We like to keep quiet about these things 😉

yep that does indeed look nearly as good as some of the lakeland trails.. 😉

That’s one of our days up there in May sorted. Cheers.

esselgruntfuttock – Member

And I thought the Lake District was good.

It is, but Scotland is like the Lakes on steroids.

No it’s not.

Is the route you did much the same as the Gleann Lichd and Bealach na Sgairne circuit on the walk highlands site?
looks ace anyway.

Yup, that’s the fella.

Aye, thought it sounded familiar.
Will be up there soon with bikes so might investigate it.

Nobeerinthefridge..
No it’s not.

Explain?

Scotland is like the Lakes with miles and miles of bog in between all the good bits.

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.

IMO of course 😉

Scotland is like the Lakes with miles and miles of bog in between all the good bits.

Actually Grum, that’s true in a lot of cases, but it makes up for it in a lot more. Less people for a start!

I love both, did a fabtastic ride from Staveley on Saturday, Garburn, Kentmere, Green Quarter etc, but have done equally & better rides in Scotchland.

Grum is pretty much spot on.

Apparently it is not singletrack as there are no trees 🙂 (according to some STW members)

Where are the table tops?

Looks rubbish compared to Llandegla 😉

Staying up in kintail next month so will scour the OS for this. Cheers.

Christ that brings back some memories. Thanks for sharing mrhoppy, looked like a cracking day for it.

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

We’re hoping to do this next week on the way from Torridon to Fort William. Looks good and thanks for sharing!

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!).