Active Schools

Cycling to school brings so many positive benefits: keeping children fit and healthy, building their confidence and giving them skills for life, Cycling Scotland.

Laggan Wolftrax is a Mountain Biking Centre based near Laggan. The trail centre is within Forestry and Land Scotland grounds with Laggan Forest Trust playing a significant role in the management of the facility. While the centre is very popular with approximately 30k visitors a year, the trail centre lacks local users, probably due to its perceived difficulty.

Highlife Highland and The Laggan Forest Trust partner in 2020 to deliver a pilot Active Schools Programme with the local Gergask Primary School at Laggan to form proficient riders, and providing an outstanding experience for the students.

The programme ran for three days in late November and early December 2020 with the children experiencing a first cycling coaching session at the school playground followed by a second session based at Laggan Wolftrax focused on skills development. The final session explored further biking skills at Laggan Wolftrax, aiming to cycle the Green Trail, an easy and gentle trail labelled right for family cycling, or anyone who likes to enjoy the scenery while riding. A section of the Green Trail was originally built as a Safe Route to School project a few years back. There’s a gentle shallow climb at the start, and a beautiful track weaving through the forest on the way back.

The programme expects to create a legacy for the future and grow interest in cycling and mountain biking among the children, an their parents, and is a forerunner to a project to add a BLUE Route to the Laggan Wolftrax Trail Centre in 2023, when a skills training programme for all primary schools in the Badenoch Area will be developed. (See section on Cycling Participation Programme for 2023)