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T wo decades ago the Scottish Hill Rally Club was formed with the aim of promoting an exciting new discipline, a fusion motorsport that combines stage rallying, cross-country endurance, competitive safari and multisurface competition. The result is hill rallying; a varied and demanding sport that challenges drivers and their machines.
Hill rallying is a broad church in many senses. Where else could a crew expect to encounter everything from rocky tracks, upland, gravel roads, water and sometimes even tar – possibly all on the same stage and combined with the forces of gravity? Crews battle these extreme elements in anything from a modified 4x4 and specialist buggies right through to fullblown space-framed prototypes.
In 2026, the sport reaches a notable milestone in Scotland. This year marks the 30th anniversary of hill rallying in Scotland and 20 years since the Scottish Hill Rally Club assumed responsibility for the events from the Royal Scottish Automobile Club.
Those early club-run events helped define the modern format. Multi-venue rallies across the Perthshire uplands became a test of endurance as much as outright performance. Competing against a multitude of surfaces and gravity over 25 gruelling miles became a defining challenge that would draw crews to these events.
As a niche sport the club would, for many years, run the sole UK hill rally, the Scottish“ Borders” Hill Rally which took place in Dumfries and Galloway. Based within the Forrest Estate – where there was no requirement for road legality – it proved an affordable and accessible entry point, while its extensive use of forest tracks and night stages created a distinct and memorable character.
Competing in a hill rally is hugely rewarding; from within the sometimesopen cockpit, the landscape unfolds quickly and the co-driver calls navigation
Hill rallies combine multi-terrain surfaces with gravity, meaning that precision and skill are just as important as speed
38 Revolution Magazine