Can anyone tell me the best direction to tackle the path that passes between Andrew Gannel Hill and Kings Seat Hill and runs north from Tillicoultry to Upper Glendevon reservoir in the Ochil Hills, south to north or north to south? Thanks.

Yes.

Find the Muckyriderz group on Facebook, and ask on there 🙂 There should be a GPX for you to use.

It’s an awesome ride, go up the long fireroad is my only comment.

North to south if you want gravity on your side. TBH the path just above the Gannel burn was very deeply rutted the last time I rode it, makes for a tricky descent as you can only ratchet the pedals in some places. It does improve toward Tilly though.

I found the higher route off the shoulder of King’s Seat to be better. YMMV.

What route are you doing?

Did a loop that I think incorporates the path you’re talking about. We did it north to south from Upper Glendevon Reservoir to Andrew Gannell Hill then down into Mill Glen.

To be honest, if you’re looking at an OS map, the supposed singletrack between Skythorn Hill and Upper Glendevon Reservoir doesn’t actually exist. It’s a faint track across tussocky moors rather than the actual singletrack you’d expect based on the OS map. It was a pretty soul destroying push in the height of a dry summer. I’d imagine it’s terrible now.

The “Tilli Trench” section of singletrack was good fun, though as noted above it’s very narrow and is basically a deep rut. I managed to go over the bars twice at little more than walking pace and the penalty for failure at a couple of points wouldn’t be nice. The descent into Mill Glen was good though. Natural, rocky and steep. I’m trying to work out a better way to incorporate Tilli Trench and Mill Glen into a shorter loop. Looking at the OS map it may be possible to head up Dollar Glen and then up to King’s Seat Hill then drop down to the trench.

Bob, you can start/finish in Tilly. Ride toward the woodland park in Alva, then up Silver Glen > Ben Buck > Cleuch > Gannel…

It’s OK, the usual Ochils grassy slog from Buck –> Gannel

North to south is the way to go.
But I’d go up onto Andrew Gannel and then down to the trench to avoid bogtrotting in Maddy Moss.

The Tilly trench is ace – Enter the Jedi mindzone to ride it dabless. And it’s even more fun in the dark.

Heading from Tilli, up Silver Glen and down the Tilly trench can be done in 2.5hrs. Drop me an email if you want GPS files and stuff.

Thanks for the info guys. The route i’m thinking of is an 80 mile bikepacking overnighter with a figure eight section through the Ochils. Starting at Dunblane then Alva, Dollar, Glen Eagles, loop around Steele’s Know via Coul Burn and Borland Glen then Glendevon reservoirs and south to Tillicoultry. After that it’s railway lines to Dunfirmline then over the bridge to Edinburgh.
What’s the long fire road that rickon mentions?

Assume rickon means the silver glen climb.

After Borland you could go past glenquey, drop into Dollar via Castle Campbell. Then Dollarbeg, Forestmill, and pick up the old railway to Dunfermline at Gartfinnan. An escape route should you want/need it.

If you do come into Tilly from upper Glendevon, bear in mind that Crispin’s suggestion of going up Gannel means you gain the altitude just to ride back down it, fun, but maybe a bit pointless, especially with a loaded bike. It’s the way I did it in the past, I haven’t done the Maddy Moss route, so don’t know how bad that is in comparison.

OP – are you planning on entering the reservoirs from Glen Eagles?

Another option is to climb up from Blackford. You then head round the reservoir – but make sure go round to the north rather than the south shown on the map.

There’s lots of route description for jaunts in the Ochils here:
http://www.crispinbennett.freedomnames.co.uk/AndrewGannel.htm

There are now windfarm tracks on the southwest of the Glendevon reservoirs, but I’ve not had a chance to explore them.

Thanks again guys especially the link. I intended to get to the reservoirs from Glen Eagles but the Blackford route also looks good.