At the start of March I am driving to Fort William for a few days climbing but will have time on my hands on the journey up. I intend to break the journey with an afternoon and morning on the bike at Ae. Can anyone suggest a good place to doss for the night, ideally a bunkhouse/hostel or B&B at a pub.

Cheers

No hostels or bunkhouses nearby.
Might be worth googling Moffat, gets you back onto M75 early am missing the commuters.
Anything from here;
Dumfries B&B
or here

You could try Gorsebank. Its log cabins and timber tents. Great access to forest near Dalbeattie (5 mins) and run by a really nice couple Paul & Kiersten.

Marthrown of Mabie. Lovely bunk house in the middle of the forest, takes about 30 min to drive to Ae, good roads minimal traffic.
http://www.marthrownofmabie.com/
C.

No longer an SYHA hostel in the area but there is Marthown of Mabie which is the middle of Mabie forest on the other side of Dumfries. Have stayed there before and it was great with a hot tub and steam room after a day on the bike. Link here
http://www.marthrownofmabie.com

Thanks. Perhaps Plan B might be better, afternoon at Mabie stay at the bunkhouse then a morning ride at Ae before continuing to The Fort.

Might want to keep an eye on the Stanes web site, there are forest works going on till around May at Mabie.
Dalbeattie is only 1/2hr away if you do stay at Marthrown or the Pods at Mabie house/Gorsebank.
Mabie get the “locals” tour of Mabie or Dalbeattie 😉 Dates for your trip ❓

Depending on your budget, it might be worth ringing the Mabie House Hotel (which has the pods Trekster mentioned, they look cosy) and asking if the little room is available.

They said they don’t usually let it as it’s a bit old fashioned but it was quite a bit cheaper than the rest, about £35 with nice breakfast IIRC.

My original reason for Ae was that it is close to the M74. This has advantages because I probably won’t be passing till after lunch on March 7th and the daylight hours will still be short. I have to be in The Fort at a sensible time on the afternoon/evening of the 8th to get sorted for others arriving. I’ll wake up on the morning of the 8th with all sorts of good intentions about departure time. Such intentions are likely to go AWOL once I start riding; “That bit was good, I’ll go round and do it again. Oh I wonder what’s up there” etc

All these half an hours add up and are likely to result in my climbing mates standing around in the cold/wet saying things like “Where the f*** have you been? Probably p****** about in the woods on a dandyhorse!” 🙂

I thought the closures at Mabie were partial, not knowing the place do they have a big impact on what one can do?

Not really, you will miss half of the Elevator climb and the descent, good thing about Mabie is you can if you choose ride sections again very easy, Ae on the other hand is much harder to do this. The current diversion will put you back on the first forest road climb where you can link in with the route again for another run up and down descender bender..

Understand your dilema hence the suggestion re staying in Moffat or heading up to Abington; http://www.daysinn-abington.co.uk/?affid=CR0210

What Clive says, just keep an eye out for where the diversions are at the time and take a trail map or as above give me a shout and I could meet if not working.
Mibbees?

Mathrown is an ace place to stay but if time is limited as Trekster said head for Moffat, that way you can ride Ae and hit the motorway straight after. Other option is to stay in Dumfries itself at the northern end of town, then you’re only 10 mins from Ae and another 15 minutes onto the M74 … leave your climber mates in the Cafe at Ae whilst you’re out riding … the cakes and coffee should keep them happy.