I hope I’m not bending any STW rules here. A friend is looking at raising some cash for a feasibility study and support for a possible trail centre in Aberdeenshire. A lot of local built trails in the area but nothing official, so this will be a big boost.

details to be found on this website.

http://www.netcomtb.co.uk/

funding page here, if you feel its a worthy cause

https://mydonate.bt.com/events/netcomtb/302853?currentPage=5&update=new#donationsList

Thanks for looking

Will look at that later, Yorkshire based, but the outlaws live near Banff. Might give me an excuse to take a bike when I visit.

having had dealings with FC many many years ago to get something in the area I wish them the best of luck.

I secured lottery funding that the FC said they would match £ for £, however they pulled out of that without reason. The FC in the this area are truly awful to deal with. They have given us the “fun park” 🙄 at Kirkhill it’s a shame the AWPR never swallowed that waste of forest up.

Bruneep I used to live in Aberdeen before Moving up to Morayshire. Used to ride Kirkhill a few times a week with mates. easy to get to from the flat. I don’t think it was that bad, had plenty of Nice little unofficial runs back then. Our favourite lil bit we named the Suicide Run due to my habit of spectacular offs but the last I rode there it’d been bulldozed. There’s plenty of potential in the forrest just needs the investment.

Other than Kirkhill where would be the best location around Aberdeen? Ideally it needs to be close to the new ring road to encourage visits. So Fetteresso (down to Drumtochty or over the Glen to Durris Mast) ? Again heaps of potential, massive forrest with a fair bit of height & easy access from A90 at Stonehaven.

Pitfichie? Existing trails, crap access though.

I meant it’s a shame the “fun park” wasn’t swallowed up.

Kirkhill is my playground I’m well aware of its potential. It’s also a working forest and that is the main issue with anything there. They would need to get the FC to agree to set aside a large area of forest and that’s not going to happen at Kirkhill.

has anyone heard from the previously very noisy AMBTA recently ?

they were looking into a drumtochty – may save the same work being done twice if they ever got a fiesability study done ?

Oh and FWIW even when i lived right next to kirkhill i went there with great reluctance.

Kirkhill is too small to amount to much in my book. And the few times I’ve been up there it’s been a bog.

As for the OP, does Aberdeen need a trail center?

as an experianced cyclist who prefers to ride natural id say no.

But having spoken at length to some of the netco guys about it – their take on it is that its a great way to introduce new cyclists to the sport without them thinking that bogs / pushing / seemingly unridable (but ridable) tech fests are the norm….so i see their point.

😆 @ TR not ridden Kirkhill for 5yrs.

well when things are crap rather than flogging my self with the same branch i move on to better things 😉 – and the places i currently ride have more than enough variation to keep me happy without venturing back 😉

There is so much great natural stuff to ride up here and personally, I don’t have much interest in trail centres. But it still looks like a good project, if only because it will keep people away from my routes 🙂 Seriously, it is good to see people making the effort to promote mountain biking up here and I’m happy to chuck them a few quid and wish them luck even if I may not actually use it myself.

I’ve been in Forres for 8 years & wouldn’t bother coming back down towards Aberdeen for riding nowadays anyway. Very seldom ride the trails in Fochabers because of the great stuff almost on my doorstep.

But a new centre down Aberdeen way would be a great idea. An ideal way to get more folk involved in the sport.

Thanks to anyone who has supported so far. Pass on the details to who ever you feel could be interested in contributing. 🙂

Dragon – 100% I think it will be good to get a trail centre in the area. Why not? I would never have got into riding bikes if it wasn’t for the accessibility of trail centres in S.Wales (Afan) back in the day. The choice to vary the grade of the trail as I got better/more confident was great.

Will never happen. I hate to be pessimistic but along with the comments above re the F.C. I was involved in a proposal from a local oil company who offered the F.C. A large sum of money to develop the trails at Pitfichie. The F.C. Did not even respond to the (repeated) offer.

For whatever reason the F.C. Have nothing but contempt for cyclists in Aberdeen. I suspect it’s because they are essentialy tree farmers and not interested in the leisure side of things that forests offer.

Isn’t Bennachie on FC land? That seems to be a pretty popular (and dare I say well run) leisure facility.

I’ve already donated, but as others have said, I doubt it will come to anything.
Good on the guys for trying though.

I’m going to stick up for Kirkhill – as a quick after-work blast, it is great fun. Sure, doesn’t compare to the bigger and/or more natural stuff on offer but I work in Dyce and (well not the last few weeks), I can leave my desk at 6 and be on a descent from the tower by 6:30. There are some great fun bits of trail in there – it always surprises me how much fun it is.

It’s also full of fond memories as the kids have cycled there since they were 3 – and only recently gone from pushing up the hills to getting to the top themselves and blasting down.

To the OP’s subject – I’m all for a trail centre. I think there’s a lot of biking going on but most of the riders you see away from Kirkhill are pretty experienced. I’m always trying to encourage folks into having a go at MTB and a local trail centre would be great for that. I don’t think Kirkhill has the space to do it – but there are so many hills available (and the points about access from the new AWPR are good) that it should be doable.

allan23 – Member
Will look at that later, Yorkshire based, but the outlaws live near Banff. Might give me an excuse to take a bike when I visit.

I’d say you don’t need the trail centre for that. Drop a note on the forum next time you’re heading up and bring the bike :).

ive always thought that in by the wind turbines on the slug road would be a good place for one – decent amounts of elevation gain/loss around as well

hardly “spoiling the natural beauty” since the road to the turbines is better than the north deeside road….

My parents live in Westhill and I usually go for a ride in Kirkhill when I’m up visiting them. It can be pretty mucky when it’s been wet but there’s a nice selection of trails there.

I agree with euain though, I think a trail centre would better suit a larger forest than Kirkhill.

I’d say you don’t need the trail centre for that. Drop a note on the forum next time you’re heading up and bring the bike 🙂

Wasn’t posting on here last time I visited but will probably do so next trip up.

Bennachie always looked interesting for bikes and the old Archaeolink would have been perfect as a Trail Base, car park and building for café\shop.

Did the buildings get flattened when it shut or is it just sat there gradually rotting?

I think the buildings are still there, and the site is up for sale too, but IMO Bennachie is not a great site for a trail centre, due to the large amount of walkers/runners and horse riders who use the area. It would be a massive challenge to route trails to avoid the maze of walker paths.

The next stage of Feasibility Study, looking at a handful of potential sites will be really interesting, and any way of demonstrating that there is viable interest from us will help.

What are folks thoughts on where the potential sites may be? My guesses: Pitfichie, Durris, Hill of Fare, Scolty.

I agree there are too many other users on Bennachie. I’d say the same for Scolty (certainly anything coming down from the tower, maybe not so much on Hill of Gauch).

Durris or Hill of Fare – both have good access off main roads. Pitfichie? Limited by access in my opinion. Plenty of hill to play with though.

Maybe something else in the hills near Slug Road – Mongour, Kerloch, Fetteresso forest. Lots of space, good location etc. I’ve no idea of the politics/landowner issues etc.

Used to live in Newtonhill and often cycled around Durris mast and all the cheeky trails locals from Stoney had built.

Ideally I’d look for it to be built there.

Durris and HoF have tons of area, no or very few walkers and pretty good access. I guess Scolty tower area is probably out for the same reason as Bennachie, but the vast majority of walkers you see in there just go to the tower and back down. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a walker/runner/horse on the tracks leading up to Hill of Goauch and it’s about the same ‘vertical’ as Pitfichie (c250m), HoF (c270m). Interesting times!

I suspect it’s because they are essentialy tree farmers

strange that!

I think one of the biggest unforseen side effects of things like the 7 Stanes is that people now expect the FC to magically give them mountain biking, when in reality these days they struggle to pay their own staff.

If you must ride bikes in a forest, the FC own just a fraction of forests, and there’s a vastly greater area of non-forested land. Go to this map here and see which forests are non FC, the legal boundaries are the first layer in the list on the right you can turn on http://maps.forestry.gov.uk/imf/imf.jsp?site=fcscotland_ext&

not at all big jim .

even when the funding is outsourced they are not interested up here,.

they just dont want you on their land. They are happy enough to charge you to leave your car in a muddy hole though.