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Highland Cross

Highland Cross is a  50-mile duathlon (20 miles on foot, 30 miles on bike) traversing the spectacular Scottish Highlands coast to coast, west to east from Kintail through Glen Affric and Strathglass to Beauly.

Highland Cross exists to raise money for causes that benefit the people of Highland, disadvantaged by disability, ill health or social need.

Entry to the Highland Cross is by invitation only for 265 teams of 3 (795 persons) of all athletic abilities; walkers, joggers, runners and cyclists. Teams must pledge to raise a minimum of £500 in sponsorship for the charities nominated by Highland Cross.

Charities interested in becoming beneficiaries from Highland Cross should consult the "Charities" page and fully examine the funding conditions before applying.

6 February 2026

The organisers have selected the teams for this year’s event and all team entry owners have been invited by SiEntries to accept their invitation and pay the entry donation of £240 by Friday 27th February 2026.
 

If you have been unsuccessful this year, please note 1st September 2026 is the date to apply for Highland Cross 2027 if you are interested (see FAQs on www.highlandcross.co.uk for more details)
 

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27 January 2026

Team applications deadline 31st January

The application deadline for this year’s event is fast approaching. All team entry owners from 2025 and those who applied on 1st September 2025 will have received a link from SiEntries on 7th January 2026. The deadline for applications is midnight on Saturday 31st January – apply without delay!

If a ballot for team places is required, this will take place in the first week of February and all teams will be notified shortly thereafter if they have been successful or otherwise. At that point team entry owners will be asked to make payment to confirm their entry.

For further information on the event, please see the FAQs section.

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17 December 2025

Highland Cross 2026 – 20th June

42nd running of the Cross – electronic entry application process
 
We will again be using SiEntries www.sientries.co.uk for online team applications (280 team of 3) for the 2026 event.  Highland Cross will not be listed as one of their events as it is an invitation only event.  SiEntries will be contacting all registered team contacts on 7 January 2026 with a single use link to allow them to apply for a team.  The team entry donation is £240 per team (£80 per team member).

As in the past, balloting may be necessary in order to determine who will be invited to take part.   For further information on the entry process, please see the notes in the FAQs section of the website www.highlandcross.co.uk
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HIGHLAND CROSS 2025

Highland Cross reaches over £6.6million!

The figure raised in 2025 from Highland Cross participants is £358,443!


On 27 November 2025, the 5 principal charities received presentations:

Five fantastic Highland causes are main beneficiaries this year:

Badenoch and Strathspey Community Connexions – received funding for an adapted minibus

Gateway HHT – received funding for a 8 seater people carrier

Rag, Tag and Textile – received funding for a minibus

Skye and Lochalsh Mental Health Association – received funding for a minibus

New Start Highland - received funding for a van

In addition to the primary causes, the participants’ success will also allow some smaller grants to be distributed to charities across Highland over the next month.
The Organisers would once again like to thank competitors, sponsors and volunteers for their continued support of Highland Cross.
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1st September 2025 – 12noon

Sorry – The list to receive a team application for Highland Cross 2026 is now CLOSED

From the replies received from 2025 competitors, unsuccessful applications from previous years and new applications, we are again oversubscribed. We have this morning received a large number of emails requesting that their names be added to the list to receive a link to apply for a team at the beginning of January 2026. If everyone returns their completed applications, we will again be involved in balloting.

All requests received up to 12noon today will be added to the list and are being acknowledged.

The Organisers apologise to anyone who wished to add their name to the list but can only suggest that if they are interested in Highland Cross 2027, they mark 1st September 2026 in their diary as the date to register for a team application for 2027.

22 August 2025

How do I get a team entry to Highland Cross?

The TEAM ENTRY OWNER for each team from this year's event will be automatically added to the list to get an application link to apply for a team (these will be sent out on 7^th January 2026) to be included IN THE BALLOT for 2026.  This is not a guarantee of a 2026 team place - the only applications guaranteed a place are the top fund-raising teams of 2025.

If any of the 2025 team wishes to change their TEAM ENTRY OWNER for 2026, we must receive notification of this from the existing 2025 TEAM ENTRY OWNER by 31^st August, to include a name and email address.

If you were not part of this year's event and are interested in taking part in 2026, please email info@highlandcross.co.uk early on Monday 1st September 2025 to register a request for a team application link when they are issued on 7th January 2026.

Please see our FAQs section for more information on the event.

15 July 2025

Where do I send sponsor money?

Sponsor money should be banked (details below) or send cheque(s) to Highland Cross, Redwood, 19 Culduthel Road, Inverness, IV2 4AA, with competitor number on reverse of cheque (along with sponsor sheets if applicable, to enable gift aid to be claimed).

If you wish to pay by online banking, the sponsorship account details are:

• Account name:  Highland Cross

• Account no:  00439605

• Sort code:  80-91-26

Please quote your surname and competitor number in the payment reference e.g.  SMITH  123
 

Where do I send my completed sponsor sheets?

Please send to Highland Cross Organisers, Redwood, 19 Culduthel Road, Inverness, IV2 4AA.  Please write your name and competitor number on the top of each sheet.

If you used Justgiving to raise funds for this year's event, you do not need to do anything further as we get reports direct from them and allocate the donations to the respective teams.

Highland Cross 2025

The 41st Highland Cross took place on Saturday 22 June 2025.  751 competitors started the event, with 736 completing the course and 15 retirements. Full results are available here.

Photography

• Click here to view images from Alligin Photography.

• Click here to view images from Ray Liversidge.

Sign Centre, Inverness are once again producing t-shirts and hoodies for the event - click here for details.  They are offering merchandise in black also.

Justgiving - click here to set up a fundraising page for the 2025 event.

Lost Property - please telephone 07729 892 702 to claim the following:

HIGHLAND CROSS 2024 – 40^th running of the event

Highland Cross reaches over £6.3million!  The figure raised in 2024 from Highland Cross participants is £368,295!

On 14 November 2024, the 4 principal charities received presentations:

• Cantraybridge – are purchasing a new minibus

• Highland BlindCraft – are purchasing a new van

• Highland Disability Sport – are purchasing a new minibus

• L’Arche Highland – are purchasing a new vehicle

In addition to the primary causes, the participants’ success will also allow some smaller grants to be distributed to charities across Highland over the next month.  The Organisers would once again like to thank competitors, sponsors and volunteers for their continued support of Highland Cross.

The two teams comprising of folk from the Edinburgh based investment management firm Baillie Gifford and Dell Technologies (Richard McGrail, Tom Stockwell, Kenny Hamilton, Stuart Dunbar, Gareth Owen and Stephen Bosarge) raised an astonishing sum of £26,229 as the top fundraisers this year and the top standard three person team is a team called “Heathers Heroes” comprising of Ryan Magennis, Donal Bolger and Mike Roberts who raised a magnificent figure of £7,520.

Highland Cross 2024 - Photography

Click here to view images from Alligin Photography.

Click here to view images from David Stewart.

Highland Cross have signed up with JustGiving to enable competitors to set up their own sponsorship page.  Click here to set up a 2026 fundraising page.