On the history trail in the Montagne Noire

The Desperado is a tough, 28-kilometre trail run with 1,400 metres of climbing. Much of it is so steep that even the 1,400 metres of descending is tricky. But this is also a run that takes in an extraordinary range of historical sites, as I found out last Sunday.

The start line was on the shores of Saint-Ferréol, a reservoir created by Pierre-Paul Riquet in 1667 to feed the Canal du Midi. It’s the oldest dam in France, and when it was built, it was the biggest dam in the world.

The first few kilometres passed through the Forest of the Aiguille where you can see rusting kilns once used by the charcoal burners. Then we passed through Durfort, a pretty village where the charcoal from the surrounding forest was used by 600 cauldron-makers to heat up the copper vessels they were hammering into shape. They started in the 15th century, and one or two are still banging away today.

Next came a vertiginous ascent of the Berniquaut. Near the summit, we passed along the earthworks of an Iron Age hill fort, through the ruins of a medieval mountain village and past natural rock shelters used by our Stone Age ancestors. Incidentally, on a trail run like the Desperado, even the winner has to walk up many of the inclines. More modest runners like myself were grateful for the fixed ropes which in places allowed us to take some of the strain off our legs.

From there, we were subjected to several kilometres of painful switchbacks through the forest before dropping down to the Castrum de Roquefort, which is featured on the cover of my book ‘Lauragais: Steeped in History, Soaked in Blood’. This was built in the eleventh century by a family that was heavily implicated in the Cathar heresy, and at one point during the Albigensian Crusade, 300 Cathar priests sought refuge on this rocky knoll. Curiously, this was exactly the same number of people who finished the race (twenty others abandoned due to exhaustion).

After Roquefort, we dropped down to the river Sor, crossed a footbridge by a ruined water mill and climbed back into the Forest of the Aiguille. A few more severe up-and-downs left many struggling even to walk, and after a knee-deep ford (refreshing!) and a final couple of steep climbs, we collapsed down the final descent back to the lake. 

Tempted for next year? Make a note in your diary for Sunday 7th June.

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