Had a heads up that CV is a mess at the moment with trees down all over, might be time for a bunch of us to go with saws and ropes?

Also, apparently they’ve now started charging for parking? Anyone know how much?

It’s officially a right mess. Lots of trees down making all routes bar the fun park unrideable.

Not sure the FC would be too happy about a bunch of amateurs rocking up with saws and ropes to move the windfall, those are some pretty substantial trees!

The signposts are up indicating a £3 parking charge for a day, but no machines been installed yet and no signage about charges for less than a day.

I’d happily pay a nominal fee for a few hours parking, if the revenue was to be spent on the trails , but I doubt it will be.

OK, well I’ve not seen the trees and thought they could be some fairly small ones as they are local to me – loads of 3 and 4″ diameter trees down – easy to shift.

As for the parking – £3 is excessive considering it’s only a 30 minute route. Not sure I’ll be visiting in future if they don’t sort that out.

The last big wind only brought down a couple that could be stepped around quite easily, this time it seems to have collapsed swathes of even some of the larger ones.

I’ve emailed Andy the ranger about it, and will post up if he lets me know timescales for clearance.

Depending on how strictly the parking is monitored I’ll either be parking in the wee Layby just before the group of houses or up at the dam end in the village. Alternatively, it might be the incentive i need to stop being so lazy and just ride up!

That’d be good, I’ll keep an eye out for your post, cheers!

It seems to punish the locals somewhat, I often nip up there of an evening as it’s only 20 minutes drive away, unless I can find alternative parking in future I won’t be bothering as it’s just not worth it at that price. If it were 50p or a quid I might do it, or if it had 20 miles worth of trails like most of the other TC’s that charge that much for parking. Not sure i could ride up there without being mashed by the time I got there!

20 minute drive each way will cost you about £3 in fuel, so stop moaning about paying for parking. Who do you think pays for the clearing of the trails after the winds? I’d hate to think how much that’ll cost. I do agree with you that the money should be put towards trail upkeep, but I’m don’t think enough people go to make a noticeable contribution to new trails once the upkeep costs come off.

+1 clubby. Trail centres are a bargain.

APF

I think £3 is too much when it only costs that at Glentress, only went a couple of times last year, Probably less now this year

Miserable b……s. Get a grip.

Take it you’ve not visited Carron Valley then Alex.

Are the FC carparks standardised at a certain rate? Or are they charging £3 specifically because CV is a trail centre?

If a forestry car park has a decent surface rather than a wet pot holed mess, some clean / serviced toilets and some facilities then I don’t mind paying to park
If its just some stones placed on mud and there is nothing there other than a glorified layby then it’s a bit of a cheek to charge more than say £1.50
Can’t recall carron specifically but sure last time I was up there it fell somewhere in between but nearer more into the latter camp (admitadly it was evening so if there was toilets they may have been closed)
Oh and trail centre it most certain isn’t, it’s one 20minute volunteer built short blue route and from what I understand of the situation up there I wouldn’t be certain any car parking charges where fed back into trail maintenance or expansion? (or has that been resolved now)

CV has a new C.P, serviced toilets a Medeival Fort (work in progress) a rather large loch (with fishing) and the largest hill in the area. As a guide it probably takes 40 mins to lap the (profesionally designed and built) trails and a second lap can be varied. I guess it depends on what you regard as a Trail Centre?

Having said all that, that level of charging seems almost designed to put people off – particularly given the locality / proximity to low income households.

Different ball game perhaps if the FC explained where the money was going and what plans they had for the place.

 a Medeival Fort (work in progress) 

theyve been building that bloody thing for about 6 years

theyve been building that bloody thing for about 16 years

FTFY BB 🙂

I dont think the facilities available warrant a £3 charge and if this is an exercise in testing income generation to help maintain the trails then it will fail miserably because people wont pay that much to park there.

not forgetting of course that CV is also a popular destination for dog walking and other walkers in general and i doubt they will pay that fee to park, since the facilities for walkers are minimal.

10 more like 😉

Still, they do appear have made more progress over the last 3 years than they had the previous 7:

http://www.clanranald.org/cln1/home

20 minute drive each way will cost you about £3 in fuel, so stop moaning about paying for parking. Who do you think pays for the clearing of the trails after the winds? I’d hate to think how much that’ll cost. I do agree with you that the money should be put towards trail upkeep, but I’m don’t think enough people go to make a noticeable contribution to new trails once the upkeep costs come off.

More like £2 in fuel, but by adding parking costs of that extent more than doubles the cost of visiting, so it’s not worth it. Clearing the trails after one-in-50-year winds – sure, pricey, but not when averaged over the likely number of years between occurences.

CV has a new C.P, serviced toilets a Medeival Fort (work in progress) a rather large loch (with fishing) and the largest hill in the area. As a guide it probably takes 40 mins to lap the (profesionally designed and built) trails and a second lap can be varied. I guess it depends on what you regard as a Trail Centre?

But I don’t know anyone that wanted a new carpark, toilets and a fort to be honest. The usual complaint was that the gates shut early and people had to park outside. The course is too small for trail centre valuation. While fort visitors (who visits these things? Presumably older or with kids?) may indeed have wanted a toilet block and pool-table-top car park, I don’t think any MTB visitors I’ve ever known cared about toilets or car parks being smooth as a babies bum. It’s just added cost for something that most biking folk give a damn about and, as such, it’s going to put people off using it. If it were a long trail centre and they’d installed showers and the like then fine, I can see the use people will get out of it, but for a short whip around course generally used by locals and not used as a target for distance travellers, it’s not going to work.

CV has always been not really worth a long distance visit and as such has attracted mainly locals from what I could see (people on here would actively tell people not to travel to try it as it’s not worth it). I’ll be handing in my regular use towel anyway, unless they offer shorter stay passes. Even with CV virgins and not so confident folk I don’t think I’ve ever managed to stretch it past 35 minutes per lap and it’s hardly exciting enough to demand multiple laps.

I have no problems paying for parking at large trail centres, none at all. Gladly pay my £3odd to park at glentress etc. But not at CV. I think they’d get more positive response from an honesty box with some decent labelling.

What I think will actually happen here is people will take a disliking to the £3 charge for their “local” short ride and either avoid it entirely or park dangerously in the local area which will upset the local residents. Bad times.

I’ve just worked out that GT is only 12 miles further than CV for me. I guess that settles it then…

Historically CV always had a toilet block – it was torched and the FC management at that time decided not to fund its replacement. When Clanranald approached the FC with a view to leasing land to build their fort the FC made ‘re provision’ of a toilet a condition of their lease. But it was only through the dogged determination of CVDG and the two Cooncils the place ever got built. Might not be a priority to you but I know the local residents prefer the toilet to the sight of sundry mtbrs getting their Wangers out in the CP 😉

I expect the visitor numbers now dictate the scale and quality of the CP -its not simply for mtb use and folk have an unfortunate tendency to try and sue for stubbing their toes on potholes.

>The course is too small for trail centre valuation.<

Not sure what that means – I think most folk consider it a Trail Centre

>I think they’d get more positive response from an honesty box with some decent labelling.<

Might have been a good starting point – I agree they have gone too far with this one.

The one-in-50 analogy would work…if the last 4 years hadn’t suffered windblow and needed extensive clearing.

Carry on though, no point letting fact stop a cracking analogy…

Don’t understand the “GT is only £3 therefore CV is too expensive” argument. GT is a stupendous bargain at £3 a go. You pay almost 3 times that to go to the cinema for 2 hours and it’s not half as good.

coffeeking – Member

But I don’t know anyone that wanted a new carpark

I do!

Wait are men with pushbikes costing thousands of pounds complaining about a £3 parking charge?

Wait are men with pushbikes costing thousands of pounds complaining about a £3 parking charge?

I assume you’ve never ridden Carron Valley? I always feel like they should’ve been paying me for the privilege!

Carron valley has always felt like a wip, the trail guys were doing a great job up until the dispute. I’m not sure how that ended.

I always tacked on a lap of the reservoir after doing a circuit.

No issue with the charge if it helps maintain the development.

Not been in a while due to a roadie obsession taking over from mtb. is the hotel/pub still open?

I’m not getting into the debate about the length, “gnarlyness” or grading of the trails. My point is that £3 is steep if the money’s only going to line some fat cat’s pension scheme. If it’s for the upkeep of trails & facilities then I don’t have a problem. (although when I’m skint, or forget my £3 I might choose to utilise some of the other nearby parking)

If I understand it right- FC Scotland parking fees go into their general revenue pot, so it’s not specifically ringfenced, but income is taken into account when judging expenditure (which comes back out of the same pot)

They don’t really do fat cats, but there’s definately a chance your £3 gets spent on a gigantic visitor’s centre 😉

At £3 a pop, are they still going to close it at night in winter?

Update from FC is that the trails will remain closed for the clean up operation,

official site

Well, they’ve spent a fair bit of money on the trails the last wee while.. Agree that it could do with a another wee loop to add a few more miles to it though..
The toilet block is pretty good but is it open till the same time as the carpark? Been up a few times (various times of the day) and they’ve been locked.. Not much use like that!
£3 isn’t the end of the world but it would be nice to know it was going back into local trails..

Has anyone been up there in the last few days? Is it still just the runway section that’s open?

Still out of action apart from the runway according to the FC

Spoke to them today – all is open again apparently. Website update is in the works.

Yup. FC have just tweeted that all trails are open again

If it is £3 parking I thought that was quite reasonable.

FFS £3 doesn’t pay for an hours’ parking in most cities…