The path between Harlaw Ranger centre and Threipmuir car park was closed off with temporary metal fencing this morning and a substantial looking sign stating that there would be path closures from now until next April. There was work going on by the track just the other side of the spillway.

We rode around the other side of Harlaw reservoir and up onto the bank at the end of Threipmuir. The track below was also fenced off. We cheekily crossed the Threipmuir spillway and continued up the track passing several workmen who didn't stop us. From evidence of the state of the road it seems heavy vehicles are using it.
Further round our route there was a map/sign showing the diversion route for 'walkers' – Black Hill. Not great if it gets a lot of bike traffic through the winter. The only other diversion is to drop down to Balerno. Bit of a nuisance but I guess we'll just have to work around it.

Path was in a hell of a mess last sunday, + RJ machines around, indicating something serious was happening.
Thanks for the update K, I'll copy this to the night-ride thread if thats ok?!

wow, that's really not good for balck hill. hopefully it will not be closed for very long.

I'd echo the sentiment about Black Hill 🙁

Seems to be related to this work:
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/phrp/news/news.html

The path is shut Monday to Fridays but they open it up at weekends again. Also at night you can sneak past the gates. I think the main reason they shut it is to keep people/dogs/kids away during the day when they have heavy machinery operating in the area.
We have been through it at night no problems over the last week though it wiffs badly of diesel.

The track along the side of Thriepmuir is fairly horrible at the moment as the heavy vehicles have churned the surface into grey mud that's like griding paste.

I've been making my way round the restrictions so far, but there are several tracks (e.g. Black Hill & The Nail Trail) that I'll be avoiding until they dry out.

The track closures aren't as much of a problem for me as I live in Balerno and always start there, however it's likely to be a bit of a pain if starting from either of the car-parks.

Is it not possible to get down onto the shore?

I was up there tonight and it's no problem getting round the barriers.