Markus Stitz grabs a pal and an inappropriate bike and takes on the highest (mostly rideable) pass in Scotland.

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY MARKUS STITZ

How do you find the highest place to cycle in Scotland? One solution would be to carry your bike up Ben Nevis and descend, Danny MacAskill style. This being far beyond my abilities, I tried to find a route that is actually rideable for mortals, up and downhill.

To make a start, I searched for ‘highest mountain bike route Scotland’. This was rather unsuccessful, so ‘highest place to cycle Scotland’ was the next term in my search.

There was nothing remotely mountain bike-related in the results for this, but I wouldn’t give up that soon. What about ‘the highest road in Scotland’ for another attempt? I got closer. This search revealed the Cairnwell Pass as the first result, better known as part of the ‘Snow Roads’ and access to the Glenshee Ski Centre. It was closely followed by The Lecht (there are some mountain bike tracks there), and what people would commonly mistake for the highest road in Scotland: the Bealach na Bà.

Come again?

Bealach is the Scottish Gaelic name for a narrow mountain pass: ‘Bealach na Bà’ translates as ‘pass of the cattle’. I wondered if a Google search for ‘highest bealach in Scotland’ would get me any closer to a successful outcome. Not really… the response was a message asking if I’d like to search instead for the ‘highest beach in Scotland’, which revealed Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms, but this is a mere 300m above sea level. I got tricked even further as Loch Morlich is listed as the highest award-winning beach in Scotland, but definitely not the highest beach. In late 2020 I travelled to Loch Beanie between Glenisla and Glenshee for a photo shoot for Schwalbe, and its shores sit at an altitude of 406m above sea level. Although small, there definitely is a proper beach.

None of this made me much wiser. I admitted to a Google search defeat, and finally reverted to literature research. In a pile of flyers and leaflets, I discovered a map of hill tracks in the Cairngorms National Park. According to the map, Minigaig Pass in the west travels up to 833m above sea level. Further to the east The Cairnwell, already mentioned as the highest tarmac road, would take me to 670m above sea level. My eyes lit up when I looked at the number that was printed on another dashed line slightly further to the east: