My time’s my own this week. I fancy a day out so having not been to either of these places, where do you think my time would be best spent? I’m travelling from Glasgow so not that far away.

Cheers

That depends entirely on the type of riding you like. What type of riding do you like?

never been to dalbeattie….but drumlanrig is a crackin ride thru a lovely forest.
the black bits are just enough to keep ya on yer toes. lotsa luvverly roots.
AWESOME bike museum (almost worth the trip alone) and a nice converted stables/cafe.

stan

Aye, been to the museum before. Watched a stage finish of the Tour of Britain there. Have taken part in a cracking sportive event based in the castle grounds over the past couple of years so no stranger to the place. I am, however a complete stranger to any of the MTB trails there. I had heard good things about it hence the interest.

I like all kinds of riding. I have a hard-tail but I will give most things a go within reason. Not keen on huge drop off’s. I’m steadily working my way through the 7 stanes only Dalbeattie and Glentrool to go.

How long to ride the Drumlanrig trails?

Drumlanrig gets my vote.

I would go to drumlanrig in that case.

You could spend all day there or get a good ride round in a couple of hours of less.

do you have to pay for use of the routes?

I loved both for different reasons. I’d go with Drumlanrig for traditional mountain bike riding, dalbeattie for more technical hard stuff that you’ll want to not fall off on

If you are on your own then probably Drumlanrig – do the black as well as the red – I rode the black and it wasn’t as difficult as I was expecting – just one or two very short sections of a few metres that I had to walk down.

It’s a shame you were not at Drumlanrig a couple of weeks ago as it was super dry and super fast. Different kettle of fish though in the wet.

If there are locals around (I have a sore throat right now and energy is v low) then Dalbeattie is awesome, especially when you add in the off-piste sections. I think people who do not rate Dalbeattie probably have not ridden half of it 🙂

Excellent stuff. It looks like we have a winner, echoing the above point. Do you have to pay to use the trails at Drumlanrig? Also do you drive right up to the castle? At the sportive events Ive been at you park in a field adjacent to the castle.

Rocks or roots is the question you need to ask yourself.

Rocks = Dalbeattie

Roots = Drumlanrig.

Do you have to pay to use the trails at Drumlanrig?

you have to pay to get into the castle which amounts to the same thing really.

You have to pay for grounds access at Drumlanrig during the summer season which was £5 the last time i visited. its free during closed season. and yes, drive right up to the castle and parking is easy to spot.

as for dalbeattie, just the usual FC parking fee…

Excellent, many thanks indeed.

Drumlanrig has more in the way of facilities, but the pub overlooking the bay near Dalbeattie is quite good. It’s a hard call, I’d err on the side of Dalbeattie.

Dalbeattie for me. Too many roots and tight techie turns for my (lack of) skillz at Drumlanrig.
I heart Dalbeattie.

Dammit! Drumlanrig has it. Perhaps Dalbeattie on Friday weather permitting. 😛

or you could join scotabroad and I at Ae on Thurs 😉

If my pc was working I would offer a “locals” trip round Dalbeattie but after tonight I am off-line for a week, simonralli enjoyed it 😆

But 💡 you could get in touch/pm with scotabroad who knows my phone number

Just too many choices 🙄

Merak

If it was really really wet Dalbeattie has to be a good choice, but then if you are crazy for uber wet roots then obviously stick with Drumlanrig. After saying that, there is a cracking dirty (secret-ish) descent at Dalbeattie which in the wet has your bike going down sideways and had a few of us off our bikes, but in a good comedy way and not in a hard down on rock kind of way.

or you could join scotabroad and I at Ae on Thurs

I would have taken you up on that but I’ve got a man coming to fix my TV ariel tomorrow. Incidentally I have often thought it’d be nice to have an all Scotland (and anyone else for that matter)
day at one of the trail centres.

I did make it to Drumlanrig today though. After many years of thinking I must go there. When I got there the famous bike shop was closed and so too was the bike wash. Just to spice things up it started to rain as well!

I decided to live to fight another day and stuck to the red route only, no 8 ball for me! I was hardly out of the granny ring all the way round. I had a few squeaky bum moments as well. Lots of wet routes and leaves everywhere. The bridges were the scariest bit of all, reminiscent of black ice on a day like today.

All in all I did thoroughly enjoy it and I’d like to go back for another stab at it and maybe incorporate some of the black next time too.

My favourite trails so you cant really go wrong

Plum

Busy next week, work getting in the way. Week after?

I ended up going down the Lakes, riding lots of nice rocky bridleways around Grizdale Forest 😆

Drumlanrig is one of my favourites – best in the wet 🙂