Venue: Beinn A Bhuird

Photos for Neep Route

Videos for Neep Route

Comments and ratings for Neep Route

Did this route in reverse starting at the Allanquoich car park. As per the last comment, the path at the Sneck is very badly eroded and would be difficult to ride down (was bad enough pushing up !). ... read whole comment... fin1974 gave this trail 4 stars about 1 month ago

Not a great cycle. The uphill is tough but reward, but the downhill is a waste of time - a lot of altitude is lost immediately. The eroded section is so badly eroded you can't keep any decent pace. Th... read whole comment... gwagon gave this trail 1 stars about 1 year ago

Tough but rewarding climb. Best done on a nice day because of the height. jfraser commented about 3 years ago

Tough but rewarding climb and a great circuit with views over the Monoliath mountains to the West. Best done on a nice day because of the height. jfraser gave this trail 5 stars about 3 years ago

Neep Route

This is very much an ‘Epic’ ride. With over a thousand meters of climbing and a duration of about 6 hours, a good level of fitness is required. The top of the hill is very exposed (and very remote) so you need to be prepared for a proper big mountain ride.

You start from the car park with nearly 6 miles of fairly flat roads, fireroads, and level tracks. At Tag1 you turn up Glen Quoich on a walkers path and come to a bridge over the Quoich Water at Tag2 (you can see ‘The Punch Bowl’ formation in the falls here).

Then you start a gentle climb along a sequence of walkers trails, some wide rocky landrover tracks, some narrow and rooty, but mostly out on open hillside.

At Tag3 the main climbing begins. Most of the way you are climbing on a reasonably solid rocky walkers path. There is about 600m of vertical ascent to be climbed here before you reach the North Top of Beinn a'Bhuird at Tag5 (great views over the cliff at Tag4).

From here the trail is almost completely undefined until you get to Tag6 (well, we couldn't find one anyway). At Tag6 you have a very steep decent over a rocky scree slope with large sections of flat (slippy) bedrock. It is possible to ride down here (just), but it is very important to (and very hard to) control your speed.

You turn right at Tag7 and have a nice fast decent over grass rocks and mud into a valley. You then proceed along a very washed-out and eroded singletrack which follows the water at the base of the valley. This section can be a bit start-stop because of the level of erosion (but if you manage to keep your momentum going it is better).

From around Tag8 the trail has had work done on it and it turns into a more typical kitty-litter walkers trail with drainage ditches and embedded rocks. This makes the rest of the route down the hill very much faster (as long as you are happy to deal with drainage ditches at speed). There are a couple of short but more technical rocky descent sections on the way down, but they are all rideable and add to the fun.

Ultimately the trails starts to widen out into a landrover track and ends up taking you all the way back to the roads you started on.

Photos for River Gairn and Culardoch

Videos for River Gairn and Culardoch

Comments and ratings for River Gairn and Culardoch

The turn at Tag 2 is actually marked by the first big drainage ditch you come to headin up the walkers path to the Beinn a' Bhuird corrie. Descent down the side of River Gairn, isn't great, path can ... read whole comment... floki gave this trail 2 stars about 2 years ago

River Gairn and Culardoch

Not really Beinn a Bhuird, but you start from the same place and ride some of the same trail. It has some interesting bits but doesn't really compare with the main Beinn a Bhuird ride.

From Keiloch car park head past Invercauld House. At Tag 1 take the right fireroad up Glen Slugain. This trail slowly climbs and eventually turns into a surfaced walkers path. The trail at Tag 2 is hard to find and needs good map reading skills or a GPS. You climb up and then have a fun descent to the source of the River Gairn. Follow the river, crossing where you are able - you are likely to get wet feet if there has been recent rain. The trail improves as it gets closer to Tag 3 where you cross a bridge and start heading back. You can go eihter way around Culardoch but it's a long climb whichever way you choose - the route marked is probably the easier. The road gets fairly loose in places. Take the road to the right and climb for the last time before heading down through the trees and hitting the estate road again at Tag 5.