The North Harris Trust is proposing to build some mountain biking trails in a few locations around North Harris. The trails will be purpose-built for mountain biking and will be graded for difficulty like ski runs.
Mountain biking is extremely popular in the UK with Scotland rated as one of the best destinations in the world for the sport. Mountain biking is worth millions of pounds to Scotland’s economy annually and has helped small scale regeneration of some local economies.
There are numerous riders on Harris and Lewis both young and old. This number swells during the summer months. Traditionally people have ridden the estate paths until the mountain bike trails in Lews Castle grounds were built in 2014. These trails have proven to be a great success with local cyclists and are frequently used by local activity centres and schools to deliver P.E lessons.
Building mountain bike trails in North Harris would be beneficial in many ways including;
It would give the local school a new facility to deliver National Curriculum P.E lessons.
It would encourage cycling and a healthy lifestyle amongst the local population
Provide a boost to local business
Be a tourist attraction
Take pressure (and potential damage) away from walking paths
Potentially create employment
Be a venue to hold competitions
Provide opportunities for people to develop, progress and achieve success at their chosen level of the sport
We are right at the beginning of this project and we need to find out how much local support there would be for such a project. Please could you spare a couple of minutes to complete the survey below.