A few months back we reported that the discovery of nesting capercaillie had put the kybosh on planned MTB trails at Sluggan Pass in Glenmore Forest Park, Scotland. But Forestry Commission Scotland has been driving ahead scooping out alternative venues in Strathspey and Badenoch and it looks as if they may have found one.

The new possible site is on the Alvie Estate, the owners of which have agreed to explore the possibilities of a trail. Local trail building group Cycletherapy reckons that the site has the potential for at least an 11km “intermediate” XC trail, a 2.5km freeride/downhill trail and probably a fair amount more.

More importantly, as far as anyone can tell no capercaillie have ever been anywhere near the place…

If the Alvie Estate plan goes ahead it’ll be an interesting step. The Estate is private land, which would be a first for this sort of trail development. There’ll be a lot of issues to resolve to get the trail built, but if it can be done the lessons learnt should be hugely valuable for future developments.

FC Scotland aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket, though. Work’s continuing to modify the original Sluggan Pass proposal and there are other plans in the pipeline.