Bruces Crown with Emma Stuart 

The Bruce’s Crown race is a 74km loop around the Galloway Hills. A resurrection of a previous race, Nicky Spinks designed the new route as a navigational challenge for teams of four to traverse the Southern Scottish mountains. 

The name Bruce’s Crown comes from within Scottish history, when Robert the Bruce seized the throne and became King of Scots on 25 March 1306. This year’s route covered the southern peaks of Lamarchan to Cairngarroch, then Rhinnes of Kells to finally cut across to the north end of the Range of the Awful Hand. It finished up on the highest Peak, Merrick, before descending to the finish.

Irish athlete Emma Stuart was part of the team The Four Tussockteers: Nicky Spinks, Emma Stuart, Kirsty Hewitson, and Natalie Hawkrigg. 

“It was super tough; super tough conditions, but an amazing experience. There are not many events like that in the country. So it’s just nice to have something a bit different, but it’s truly challenging. The rules, phones are meant to be kept in a sealed container and GPS devices. Obviously, you can have your watch recording, but the map needs to be knocked off. So, there are not actually that many races that are that strict on navigation. So it’s quite nice, actually, to bring back that old-school feel for a change.”

Navigation was recently highlighted during the Barkley Marathons, as Jasmin Paris, the first woman to finish, was cited as an excellent navigator on an unmarked mystery course. 

>>> Top 10: UK Ultrarunning Athletes

“As I was trudging around these felts on really rough terrain, I was thinking, Do you know what? This is a Galloway version of the Barkley Marathons. It really is. I’m not even joking. The only things that were missing were books. Instead of books, we were scrambling around trying to find summit cairns on these indistinct plateaus.”