Mountain bikers

Helping capercaillie and the mountain biking community to thrive alongside each other in the Cairngorms.

Background

In 2020, a survey of 388 mountain bikers who ride in the Cairngorms National Park, found that almost all feel responsible for the environment they ride in and are willing to change behaviours to help protect the environment. You can read the full survey results here.

In response to these findings, a group of over 20 riders from the Cairngorms National Park, came together to help turn this consensus into action and create a plan to help the mountain biking community to enhance and protect the environment it enjoys.

The group of riders, who represent a range of riding abilities and interests and include bike shop owners, mountain bike guides and members of the Badenoch & Strathspey Trail Association, took part in a series of action planning workshops from January to February 2021.

Through this process the group have become more informed about capercaillie; been able to identify potential solutions; and have agreed a goal and a set of actions to help deliver win-wins for capercaillie and the mountain biking community.

The goal and actions are known as the Trail Feathers project.

The Trail Feathers project is funded and facilitated by the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project and Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland with support from the Badenoch and Strathspey Trail Association.

Plan

The goal, actions, timeline and progress of the Trail Feathers project can be explored here: Trail Feathers Project Plan: 2021 - 2023

Events and activities

Coming soon.

Latest news for mountain bikers

Keep up to date with news related to the mountain biking community.

Neil_Wilson

Meet Operational Management Team member Neil Wilson

A member of the project’s Operational Management Team and co-founder of his local Trail Association, Neil talks mountain biking and capercaillie…

Douglas riding on MTB trail

Riding trails for capercaillie: Tales from a Mountain Bike Trail Intern

Find out what Douglas, our mountain bike trail intern has been doing to help capercaillie

mountain-biking-cairngorms

New powers to mountain bikers to help save capercaillie

Joint media release from the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project and Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland