Reap what you sow – Golspie’s Highland Wildcat Trails

The Highland Wildcat Trails at Golspie is the UK’s most northerly trail centre, it boasts the UK’s longest singletrack climb and the longest singletrack descent.  They are a pretty long drive for most UK mountain bikers but those who do make the effort to ride them will be rewarded with well thought out, well maintained and fairly quiet trails.  Their remoteness probably means they are likely to stay in good condition longer than somewhere more easily accessible and while I was at Golspie there was barely a braking bump to be seen anywhere.

Going all the way up there!

In a traditional style, the trail gets all of the uphill out of the way right at the start as you ascend to very near the summit and a huge statue of a Duke of Sutherland before the second half starts, nearly all of which is downhill.  The centre includes blue and red loops that start from different car parks as well as a black graded loop that acts as an extension to the red route.  The black itself features a further optional (but recommended) extension which is also graded black. 

Rising above the coast

This is certainly a lot of climbing, but it goes by much quicker than you expect as the trail has been built to maintain your interest; before I knew it I was high above the coastal town of Golspie, climbing into the low clouds, having made only one wrong turn at the end of “Cairn Climb”.

Where the first black-graded section leaves the treeline there is a shortcut called “Treeline” which allows you to skip the more exposed parts of the trail. If the weather is good enough for you to continue without the shortcut the next section is “Lactic Ladder”.  If you guessed from that name that this might be a killer climb, you’re dead right.  The rocky trail climbs steeply via a series of switchbacks.  For me, the low cloud hid the best of the views across the valley and down to the sea. The section provides a real technical challenge but ultimately feels fair; if you can’t ride it all (and I would be incredibly impressed if you can clean it on a first attempt!) then it feels like it must be your skills or set up, and not the design of the trail that is to blame.  This sharply contrasts with some other UK trails that I’ve ridden where the black sections are not as well designed and feel simply unfair – the balance of risk and effort versus fun and satisfaction feels off.  Golspie gets it very right.

While the black extension “The Laing Way Round” is a fairly long double track climb around the back of the hill, it is unequivocally worth it IF you have the skills to ride the black descent.  Aside from this double track ALL of the rest of the trail is single track, with only one very short section of fire road on the climb – even I can’t complain about that!

Slight break in the clouds at the start of the downhill half

The quality of the downhill parts is evident immediately.  Starting with the view from a hilltop shelter looking down through the first few bends of “Mon-U-Mental” it’s clear you are in for a treat.  The trail is fun to ride, well-built and drains well.  I’m not much of a wet weather rider but I was riding it in the pouring rain and can safely say it was one of the best trails I’ve ridden.

Enjoying it despite being soaked through

Being one of the longest purpose-built singletrack downhills in the country, the descent is very meaty; stopping to take some pics and also to let my arms recover I enjoyed about half an hour of downhill.  This is an amazing payoff for the earlier climb!  If you can stop yourself from being distracted by the great views (the sun had managed to break through by now) “VTOL” features some large jumps and well thought out rocky corners.  This is pretty challenging stuff but it’s all rideable if you’re feeling confident.

VTOL snaking down the hill

Re-entering the treeline on “Running the Gauntlet” was the first time that the wet weather really made the trail slippy and a bit too sketchy for my liking.  The mist flowing through the old forest made for a great atmosphere though. 

Running the gauntlet

The downhill continues on the red graded “Valhalla” and “Lawsons Run”.  These are not as tech as the black, as you might expect by the grading, but are incredibly fun and feature smaller jumps and drops off large rock slabs with the added bonus that you can let loose a little bit more due to the lower technicality and being nearer the car park.

As you exit the woods, the trail suddenly transitions into a fairly long string of north shore obstacles, about 1 – 2 feet in height.  These looked well made but being soaked to the skin by this point I wasn’t keen on sessioning them this time around!

A final blast down a well-reinforced rocky section leads you back to the starting point of the trail with a great sense of accomplishment and the feeling that you really should try to squeeze in one more lap, after all, when will you be in the area again?