Never been before – thinking of going this weekend – had a read about their Justice Trail – worthwhile?

It is pish. I read about it in the mountain biking Scotland book and thought it sounded great – how wrong I was. A wasted day.

That’s a wee bit harsh bigdugsbaws, what were you expecting, a trail centre? It is a nice, and quite long (for a waymarked trail), classic XC ride. Depending on when you rode it I think it was suffering from horse use, which is gutting given the amount of work that went in to getting the trail up and running, but I think it is getting better now. We rode some sections of it just before xmas and it looked like some work had been done on sections to clear bush growth etc.
If any day out on your bike counts as a wasted day you must live a constantly thrilling life. How about the day when you thought ‘I should go riding but its a bit windy and rainy so I won’t bother’ then stayed in all day watching jeremy kyle in your y-fronts? Was it more of a waste than that? 😉

pulls up a chair

I did it about 2 years ago and really liked it. Not a trail centre more like a series of oh, i wonder where that goes rides linking up singletrack, farm roads etc into one big loop.

Its been a while since I rode it, but I found the directions a bit confusing and ended up missing out some of it. I would give it a go again sometime.

I did it a couple of years back. It was a bit of a mudbath – having to pedal the descents, that sort of thing – so I’d check out the weather/ground conditions first.

It’s a nice XC loop around a quiet borders town using lots of “natural” trails and old rights-of-way. You can bug out half way round if you’re tired/bored. I plan to return when the ground is a bit less wet (though it might be OK if frosty….)

Good point druidh – nice and dry here now but given the recent snowmelt etc it might be a bit squidgy underfoot. Just fancy something a bit different other than Pentlands or the Saturday morning scrum at GT/Inner.

Cool. If you go, please let us know how you got on. I’ll definitely be going back later this year.

+1 to pigyin, druidh & cupra.

Just fancy something a bit different other than Pentlands or the Saturday morning scrum at GT/Inner.

Sounds ideal. There might be better “natural” and “man-made” riding in every direction, but it offers something different to most of these.

+1 to bigdug more like. It’s a big bag of pish.

Someone’s got big baws advertising it as a trail you might want to visit – it just an unremarkable local loop of fields, paths and woods. Same as at the end of 1 million roads up and down the country.

I think we may be coming at it from different ends. I like it as it takes me back to ‘discovery’ xc rides of old and and in fairness it does say as much on the website:

Please note as these trails are ‘natural’ and not armoured in their entirety, then depending on the weather, there may well be wet and muddy sections; fair weather trails – as described in a mountain bike article.

The trail is largely natural using ancient drovers roads, winding singletrack with lung bursting climbs and long swooping descents. We have taken the best of the natural trails and linked them up using new purpose built singletrack to form a loop….

How about the day when you thought ‘I should go riding but its a bit windy and rainy so I won’t bother’ then stayed in all day watching jeremy kyle in your y-fronts? Was it more of a waste than that?

Yes, as I stated before, it’s pish.

We even talked to a group of girls at the end who had also just completed it and they were extremely disappointed too. I wasn’t expecting it to be anything like a trail centre but its it bears no resemblance to what is written about it in the book. There are far nicer natural rides in that area – don’t waste your time.

I’ve been tempted to try this out for a while. I like riding away from trail centres sometimes, but I also like putting my head down and just riding, rather than having to stop every 100yds to check a map, so a signposted natural (well sort of) route sounds interesting. I guess this type of riding isn’t for everyone.

I think there is enough positive comments here to confirm I should give it a go some time soon. Thanks all.

it’s pish

Wow – didn’t expect to get such a strong response either positive or negative!!

I’m intrigued as to how it can be that bad – think I’ll have to give it a go even if it proves bigdug right!

You should give it a go, everywhere’s worth riding once let’s face it.

And it’s not terrible in itself – I do these sort of unremarkable loops every week on the cross bike and enjoy them. The negative reaction comes from when you’ve driven 30 miles to it and you could have stopped your car at any point in between and had a similar or better ride.

The negative reaction comes from when you’ve driven 30 miles to it and you could have stopped your car at any point in between and had a similar or better ride.

Thats it in a nutshell.

being local i would recommend during the summer or after a hard frost 😆
im afraid some of the dissapointed punters have me to blame as i scribed the speel below 😳 😳 😳
then certain mags and guide Books and british cycling web sites just cut and paste without bothering to ride the route (SHAME ON YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) 😯

in order to make up for this next time u fancy a visit drop me a email and i will point you in the correct direction and possibly show you some of the secret stuff i have been clearing since i resigned from the committee. singletrack so tight no horse could ever get through 8)

this is the speel that was cut and paste
maybe i see the ride through rose tinted spectacles

The Jeddart Justice Trail is a 40km mountain bikers dream. The trail is largely natural using ancient drovers roads, winding singletrack with lung bursting climbs and long swooping descents. We have taken the best of the natural trails and linked them up using new purpose built singletrack to form a loop resulting in the perfect blend of trail with superb views of the Jed Valley and Oxnam Valley with the Cheviots beyond.

We wind our way through several strips of forestry and open ancient woodland but you will not be faced with a view of the same trees for km after km, no siree not on the Justice Trail, it’s views are stunning all the way from start to finish. To complete the Justice trail will be a great achievment but with 10 or more escape routes back in to Jedburgh the Justice trail can also be cut short making it possible to tailor your ride to your needs with options of 5km 10km 15km 20 km 30 km right up to the full challenge of 40km.

The main town car park is the starting point of the Justice Trail, located below the visitor information centre where maps and information can be picked up. The Justice trail meanders its way down beside the Jed Water to the Auld Brig where you cross the Jed and start climbing gently up Hartrige Drive past the site where Hartrige House once stood, continuing from here to Mount Ulston. It’s on to singletrack now all the way to the Roman road named Dere Street. Now you descend quickly to Jedfoot “choose your line carefully”, the trail at this point steepens with ruts, loose rocks and cobbles. At the bottom it’s left upstream following the Jed to the “Jooglie Brig”.

Cross the A68 and enjoy the hard technical climb up to Lanton Woods following an ancient drovers road past Willies Crook towards Lanton Road. At this point you can ride the family loop, with its built singletrack and rooty section in Lanton Woods, or even visit Timpendean castle before rejoining the Drovers road and towards the golf course where you have a short sharp descent followed by a climb to the Dunion Road – where you follow the road for a few hundred metres before you join a singletrack boardwalked climb along the face of the Dunion Hill all the way to Black Law mast, passing an old rifle range and the original home of Jedburgh Border Games.

Approaching Black Law you will be greeted with a spectacular 360 degree viewpoint and a view of Ruberslaw; the perfect place for a well earned break (remember the camera!!) Now a very fast downhill singletrack with three route choices and a few features to keep you entertained! Wide grins all the way down till you meet the Green road (old drovers toll road) now a grassy track. The trail follows the green road past Swinnie Toll (it’s ok you don’t need to pay the toll anymore, honest!)

Back to singletrack heaven all the way round Swinnie Forest with berms, jumps, classic woodsy trails, be careful though there may be some timber lurking on the trail ready to surprise you. Then steady away as you climb from Swinnie back up to the top of Merlin Dean, remember there’s a choice of routes to choose from so select a different one from the first time around.

After Merlin Dean we take a left and head along on the Green Road following the Borders Abbey Ways and then follow a double track which descends quickly with a sharp turn, a short climb and then onto a steeper, looser descent. Follow the road towards Todlaw farm; from here follow a track which again descends steeply after which you lead up to Galahill and the Castle Jail, the final stopping point before Jeddart Justice was administered.

The Verdict: we never said it’d be easy, but we did say it’d be fun!

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imho ride it anti clockwise or you will feel a tad miffed

and miss out the climb up swinnie moor as its not worth it

cheers DTD

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