Devil O’ The Highlands Preview 2025

Full details of the race with a results link is HERE

The annual running of the Devil O’ the Highlands Race takes place this Saturday 26th April.

Brief History

The Devil of the Highlands is a 42-mile race held on the top half of the West Highland Way from Tyndrum to Fort William. It includes 6,500 feet, almost 2,000 metres of climb, and has a 12-hour cut-off time.

 The first race took place in 2003 under the stewardship of Gary Milne, supported by his wife Gemma and his Dad Stan. Gary and Stan had both run and been involved with, the full 95-mile West Highland Way race. Gary had long had the idea for “The Devil” and in 2003, the idea became a reality. The event soon became a popular fixture in the Scottish Trail and Mountain calendar, attracting some of Scotland’s and Britain’s top ultra runners, as well as mere mortals just happy to take on the challenge or enjoy a great day in the hills.

In 2015 John Duncan, Highland Fling Race Director, took over the organisation of the race. It seemed to coincide with the general fast-growing interest in trail running. Numbers gradually increased, In the five years to 2019, the number of finishers more than TRIPLED. (2014 – 121 finishers. 2019 – 367 finishers)

Covid years put a halt to that in 2020 and 2021 but 2022 saw a healthy entry.

The current race records have stood for several years.

Former Great Britain ultra international Lucy Colquhoun holds the women’s record with 5:47:28. It was set in 2011 when Lucy was one of the leading ultra runners in Great Britain. To put it in perspective, the second fastest women’s time is 40 minutes slower at 6:23:18 and was set by Irish International Nicola Duncan in 2018.

The men’s course record is held by Rob Sinclair from Aberdeen. His record time of 5:12:21 was set in 2017. Rob was having a “Stella Summer “ that year. The GB international not only completed the mythical “Scottish Trail Triple Crown” of Highland Fling, Full West Highland Way and the Devil of the Highlands in the same summer but set course records in all three races, all of which still stand!

As the race website proclaims,

“John and the rest of the Devil Team strive to continue Garry and Gemma’s success to allow runners to experience the amazing scenery of the route.”

The rest of the devil team includes over 120 volunteers giving up their time over race Weekend to ensure everything goes smoothly.

The 2025 Race

This year there are a record number of entrants overall, a record number of women too, and the highest ever percentage of women at  43% this year, compared with just under 30% last year. 2025 has seen the race encourage an  ‘active gender entry’ experiment to increase the number of women running – 

A total of 244 women, 318 men and 4 non-binary entrants are on the start lists for this year’s race. This is a record number of women entries 

Women to watch 

Fanni Gyurko, Ochil Hill Runners.Originally from Hungary but resident in Scotland for several years. Fanni has a solid marathon background with a PB of 2:35:47 from Seville in 2020. She has now discovered a love of the hills and trails and was fourth in both the Devil and the Highland Fling in 2024. Fanni is also a two-time winner of the 50km Dava Way.

 Alison Mcgill is a previous winner of the Devil in 2019, her first ultra race. In the intervening years, she has run for Scotland at 100km in the Anglo-Celtic Plate and has won the last two West Highland Way races in 2023 and 2024. She placed 2nd at the 2024 Highland Fling.

She is currently in her final few weeks building up to this year’s full West Highland Way in June and is using the Devil to put in a good effort without disrupting the training block too much to June.

Others to watch

Emma Padner, 6th at the 2024 West Highland Way and 4th at the Kielder Ultra,

Carol Newman, Carnethy, winner of the 50-mile Pennine Barrier Ultra and 3rd at the 70km Sidlaw Ultra in 2024. 

Men to watch 

Kyle Wilson, Greenock Glenpark, 2nd in the Devil in 2023 and 6th in both the Fling and the WHWay in 2024. Previous winner of both the Dee 33 and Glenogle 33

Josh Bakker-Dyos, 2nd in the 2022 Highland Fling race.  1st Snowdonia,14 peaks ultra( Welsh 3,000 Ft  route 2024 and a previous winner of the 165km Ultra trail Snowdonia

Paulius Pecuira was 3rd  in both the 2024 West Highland Way and Highland Fling races. 1st in the 2023 Glenmore 24 Hr with an impressive 236 Km. 

Dave Ward, HBT; 7th in the Devil in 2024 and 2nd in the 2024 West Highland Way 

Grant McKellar; 4th at last year’s Devil and 4th at the Winter Spine Challenger.

Gus Irvine:Pyllon,  Improving with age. Ist in the West Highland Way challenge in 2022  and has an impressive road 100k time of 7:0:07 and 24 hr distance of 239.186 km

Aidan O’Byrne; A top  6 finisher in the Devil from 2023

I am sure to have missed someone, and there are always runners who have had a good winter’s training, ready to surprise themselves and all of us with a stunning performance. That is the nature of Sport. 

Current Course Records 

Men       Rob Sinclair        5:12:21    2017

Women  Lucy Colquhoun 5:47:28.   2011

Masters Records ( from DUV data)

Male V40   George Cairns         5:50:28  2010

Male V50.  Marcus Scotney      5:39:36  2024

Male V60.  Graeme Hall            7:03:32  2024

Male V70.  Graham MacArthur. 8:56:56. 2019

Female V40. Lucy Colquhoun          5:47:28. 2011

Female V50 Michelle Hetherington 7:25:46. 2016

Female V60 Jean MacDonald          8:29:13  2022

Female V70 Jane MacLoud.           10:55:51 2022

Current Fastest Times

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Adrian Tarit Stott.

The author is a former GB 24-hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions.  He has also been involved in organising ultra-distance races for over 30 years.  Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Running Advisory Group (URAG) and the Mountain and Trail Advisory Group. He also contributes as part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams. A freelance writer in his spare time, he contributes articles and reports to several websites and magazines including Athletics Weekly and Irunfar.