A Little More Detail
This holiday also features possibly the finest hotel which we use in Europe – a very high end 3 and 4 star complex which features a leisure club with a large heated indoor swimming pool and gym, shopping complex, wireless internet access, coffee shop, whisky and cocktail bar, and a choice of places to eat including a stunning restaurant - high in the hotel with a glass wall with huge views across the Cairngorm mountains. Aviemore itself has several places to eat and a choice of shopping, including outdoors specialists and some excellent bike shops.
Our first day of riding will see us staying local and heading into the nearby Rothiemurcus Estate and the edge of the Cairngorms themselves. Rothiemurcus was the site of the British round of the Mountain Bike World Cup in the 90's, and it's easy to see why – these are true mountains, studded with an array of fantastic trails. Our route for your first day will show you some of the best natural singletrack in Scotland – the flow of some of these trails is staggering – and this big day takes in everything from mountain wilderness riding to deep pine forests where we know some real "locals-only" trails.
Later in the week we will return to this area later in the week – although slightly to the south – for our "AbraMcCabra" ride – so called because it bizarrely reminds of us of one of our favourite rides in Spain! It's a huge climb – nearly 700m from the valley to the top of a genuine Scottish "Munro" - meaning a mountain over 916m high...and this one beats that easily at nearly 1020m! Of course, the huge descent back to the valley rewards you richly for your efforts...technical at times and flowing at others; it's almost alpine in proportions!
Magical Singletrack & Unique Trail Centres
No trip to this part of the world would be complete without a visit to one or two of Northern Scotland's unique trail centres, which will redefine your expectations of trail grading! It must be something in the air in this part of the world – some of these places make anything to the south look positively sedate, although easier lines are always available! Laggan Wolftrax is very close at hand, and has some crazily technical rock gardens and culminates in a fabulously flowing jump park which anyone will enjoy. Learnie
Red Rocks near Inverness has some beautiful flowing switchback sections and then suddenly throws in tricky rock staircases which will really test your technical skills! The route culminates in an awesome orange graded bike park section with an enormous straight-line run of endless tabletops – great fun whether you jump them or ride them! Further north again is Golspie Highland Wildcat, which includes some epic climbing to reach it's monstrous 1300m descent which starts near the summit of Ben Bhraggie and finishes 7km later – making it the longest singletrack descent in the UK.
Blurring the line between natural and man-made singletrack, our "Escape the Centre" ride in Northern Scotland is based around Fort William, and is very much a day of two halves – we'll ride some of the "Witches Trail", using the World Cup XC course on the lower slopes of Ben Nevis – which features some stunning sections of technical singletrack and flowing descents. The other part of the ride is a fantastic sinuous loop on local singletrack which throws in some amazing views back over towards the Nevis mountain range.
Isle of Skye - Glen Sligachan - An Epic Biking Experience
The highlight of the week for many is our optional* excursion across to the Isle of Skye to ride the legendary and utterly extraordinary Glen Sligachan epic. This is one of the World's greatest biking experiences – you will ride deep into the wilderness amongst some of the most extraordinary mountain landscapes on the face of the planet. A spellbinding technical singletrack 16km long reaches from the north to south coasts of the island, and features numerous rocky challenges, before you return across the island following a real wilderness trail, which at times will see you literally dipping in and out of the crystalline waters of a loch and at others shouldering your bike through a remote peat bog before hitting a great final descent that drops you back towards the opposite coastline. This day needs an early start and a late finish, but is a once in a lifetime experience!
*- a small extra fuel charge will apply
