A place where everyone can ride
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
There must be something in the water down at Cantray. For a start, it was once used to power a massive watermill that is now home to the offices of a surprising feature of country life. A short walk from the old mill building itself lies a one kilometre strip of tarmac that is available to anyone... anyone without an engine, that is.
The Highland Cycle Ability Centre is aimed at a variety of users but it is the specially adapted bikes that really catch my eye. Caroline Williams, the track’s co-ordinator, tells me that there are a wide range of users who come to use the facility, from cycling clubs using the timing device for top-level training to people with disabilities and those with other conditions such as dementia and people in rehab.
“Most rehab is done indoors in a gym,” Caroline suggests. “For outdoorsy people, it is great for them to come here because they love to have the wind in their hair again.”
Some of the bikes she shows me are incredible, including trikes, tandems and specialist vehicles for people with different disabilities. There are bikes which allow wheelchair users to ride, either as a passenger in an adapted trike or as “driver” in some cases. There are also “running bikes” for people with just a slight amount of movement in their feet.
Caroline says: “We’re trying to get anybody here on non-motorised wheels, whether it’s roller skates, bikes or trikes. There are clubs using the timing wheel but I’m particularly interested in people who would not normally have access to bikes.”
During my visit to the cycle track a group of pupils from Inverness Royal Academy’s special needs unit, known as the Core, come for their weekly go on the circuit. It’s a chance for them to try something different and it’s soon clear how much they love coming here. These children wouldn’t be able to cycle around in the way that so many of us take for granted. Sarah Campbell, for example, rides the recumbent trikes around the track because she has a visual impairment that means she can’t see the road surface clearly from a normal bike. The 15-year-old tells the teachers that she wants to buy a bike like this, but unfortunately there aren’t enough safe places for her to use it at home.
That’s one example of why the cycle track here is so important, and a lot of it comes down to a word that’s never mentioned but you can see everywhere: fun.
The smiles on the pupils’ faces say it all. Despite the rain that’s pouring down they are all having a great time trying out the different bikes and seeing how many laps they can complete, along with a bit of friendly banter.
I try out the same recumbent Sarah is using and I can soon see why she enjoys it so much. The track isn’t a simple loop – there are a couple of little hills and one nice S-bend that you drop through towards the end of the lap – so it has plenty to keep you interested each time round. I find myself getting more and more used to the feel of the recumbent and trying to corner better each time, using the full width of the track to touch the apexes.
I didn’t want to lose control of this thing, though; you can feel it wanting to go if you start to push it around the corner, and I’m sure it would roll pretty easily once it got going! One of the pupils, Lewis Thomson (17), even told me to stop pedalling along the straight approaching the bends – the children have obviously been well warned about the dangers of getting carried away!
As well as working with schools in the area, including the IRA, Millburn Academy, Drummond School and Inverness College, there is a club for cyclists with a disability called the Watermill Wheelers. As well as offering people the chance to get together with like-minded people, the club can offer carers a chance for a break.
Caroline explains that more volunteers are needed to help give carers this valuable time when they can either watch the cyclists from the little shelter beside the track or even head off to do shopping or whatever they need to do for a few hours. The club runs every other Saturday, so if you are able to help out get in touch with Caroline using the details in the panel below.
The cycle track opened in 2013 but really had its first full season last year. Caroline took over the running of the track in May and said: “At first I thought the main attraction of it was that it was traffic-free but it is also audience-free, and that is just as important. It’s the perfect place to get confidence back without people watching you.”
She tells me about a boy aged nine or 10 who came to the track to learn to ride a bike because all his peers in his street and at school could already ride. He was able to improve his skills at the track without being judged.
“It’s also good for women who’ve maybe lost confidence in cycling but want to get back to it,” adds Caroline, who has also set up a women’s running club with JogScotland. She explains that it’s for beginners who perhaps don’t want to be seen leaving their house in running gear but are quite happy to come to Cantray in the evening and run around this safe track in the dark with head torches on.
The are so many uses for this fantastic facility that’s tucked away off a minor road near Croy that it has got to be worth the effort of getting there. It would make an excellent place to take young kids cycling, try to break the lap records or have a go at anything non-motorised. If nothing else, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have fun, whatever the weather!
Details
Highland Cycle Ability Centre
The Old Mill, Cantray, Cawdor, IV12 5XT
01667 493789
07546 517312
www.highlandcycleabilitycentre.com
highlandcycleabilitycentre@yahoo.co.uk
