The Capital Trail – 6000m Ascent In 150 Miles

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Strap on your big legs and grab as many dry bags as you can feasibly strap to your bike; it’s time to go bikepacking in Scotland!

Fancy 6000m of climbing on 150 miles of trails?

The Capital Trail is an Individual Mountain Bike Time Trial, the perfect challenge for experienced mountain bikers and bikepackers. Voted by Bikepacking.com as ‘Best New Trail‘ in 2015, it packs in ca. 6000m of climbing on 150 miles, but offers splendid views over the Lothians and Borders and an amazing variety of singletrack, Land Rover tracks, forest roads and quite country lanes. In short, it is the very best Scotland’s South has got to offer.

The route starts and finishes at The Tide Cafe on Portobello Beach and features the beautiful Firth of Forth coastline, the River Esk, Carberry Hill, the Winton Estate and the Pencaitland Railway Path, Saltoun Big Woods, the quiet and scenic country lanes of East Lothian, Lammer Law, the Southern Upland Way, Thirlestane Castle, Melrose Abbey, the River Tweed, the Borders and Abbey Way, the Three Brethren, the 7Stanes trails at Innerleithen and Peebles, Kirkhope Law, the Cross Borders Drove Road, the Meldons and Pentland Hills. And to finish, the Capital Trail will offer you some views on Edinburgh you might have not experienced before. Surprise yourself!

Although the route doesn’t venture far from the city, the Capital Trail takes you through some very remote, but beautiful places. The route is designed to be ridden clockwise in two days with an overnight stop. Please make sure you respect the landowner’s properties, shut all gates, don’t leave any rubbish and leave all livestock and wildlife undisturbed. The weather here can change on a whim, and you are likely find yourself besieged by cold lashing rain and high winds even in Summer. Don’t attempt this ride unprepared, approach this ride as an independent expedition, fully prepared for your own limitations and whatever nature may have in store for you. The rewards for that will be plenty.