Hi,

Im going to Scotland with a friend on Wednesday to do a week of ‘trail centre touring’. We are taking XC bikes with trailers (homebuilt), and doing some touring with XC trailcentres added in. The plan so far is to start off from one of the stops on the edinburgh to inverness trainline, e.g dunkeld then do some trailcentres.

Does any one know where the trailcentres are in scotland?
Does anyone know of good MTB routes around (technical is good)?

Cheers,

Mike

The only trail centre between Edinburgh and Inverness is at Laggan. Get off the train at Dalwhinnie. TBH, it seems like you need to do a wee bit more research. Start here…

Google is your friend

Try the seven stanes site. there are others as well – as for a techy route how about the Ben Alder circuit? or perhaps carn mor ban but that is just a big climb and descent Might not be techy enough

cheers, not necessarily trail centres but just places where its worth dropping off luggage to ride.

No we havent done our research! been busy building trailers/doing exams

Ah! Just the way I read your post then. Still worth a good look at that site. Problem is, there’s just so much stuff, you can’t really expect to “do” Scotland in a week. Better if you limit your aspirations and explore one area more fully. Good to see you’re not limiting yourself to the 7 Stanes (although we really only built them at the Border to stop the nosey English coming up and finding the good stuff).

Off the top of my head the classics along the east coast line are glen tilt (Blair Athol)- longish ride out into the mountains but mainly doubletrack, carn Ban Mor (kingussie) Big big climb and descent and Ben alder ( dalwhinnie) – mix of singletrack and double track with a big hikabike

Techy trails in the mountains often require a fiar bit of hikabike and navigation skills as well as research on the routes. There are bokks with them in – Kenny (effing) Wilson for one

Google for details

carn mor ban but that is just a big climb and descent Might not be techy enough

Have you actually done it TJ? I found it plenty techy enough to have me over the bars twice.

Get off the train at blair athol, ride into Aviemore via glen tilt then the lairig ghru, then next day get to dalwhinnie, ride down the shore of loch ericht to loch pattack, from whence to ride over bealach leamhain to near laggan, which is apparently one of the better trail centres.

You could also spend a day in aviemore riding at bagaduish and Inshriach, neither are ‘official’ trail centres but both have great routes including as much or as little technical singletrack as you can shake a stick at, and plenty of opportunities for dumping luggage and sessioning.

Once at Laggan you could maybe link up with the Corrieyairack pass to Fort Augustus, spend a relaxed day on the great glen cycle way (with an optional detour through the Cam Bealach) then finish at the Witches Trails at fort William, then the train home!

I like the sound of that actually, maybe need to book some time off in september…

Devs – meant as sarcasm as our young friend had not done his research

I’m hoping to do it this year

Soz TJ, it’s quite obvious now that you pointed it out. Should be doing it again next sun and/or possibly the week after too.

|Nae worries – it was s tad cruel and nuance often gets missed in text. What do you think to taking the tandem over it? We can’t go over the bars on it and can do GT red?

Oops, the Laggan trail centre would be a massive detour if you went over Bealach Leamhain, maybe just skip Laggan…

I’d definitely stop at Aviemore. LOADS of natural riding nearby so you can take your pick of what you want to ride. Bothy bikes can help you out with routes. Badaguish as previously mentioned is great fun. Even the lochs of Rothiemurchus have some great singletrack not much more than 15 mins cycle from the town centre.

For getting there, you could get off at Blair Atholl and ride up via the Gaick Pass and national cycle route 7. I did it last week – 50 miles including a few loops in Rothiemurchus but wasn’t hard going at all. Ended up being almost 50% on road but there’s certainly options to reduce that. Some photos here

Doing the Gaick through to Laggan would be another possibility and could give a mix of natural and trail centre stuff.

I would put some bits on a par with Laggan black. Swavis on here also compares it to the Fort Bill DH. I tried to keep up with faster downhillers on the narrow very rocky section and so ended up hitting and riding over some pretty huge (labrador sized) rocks on my Nomad. I survived most without a crash but I imagine if you took your time you could pick a way down around them. The trouble is it drops away on one side and so kind of forces you into the rocks. I wouldn’t like to do it on a tandem as i don’t think it would be manouverable enough and would probably ground out on some bits. The bits you _could_ do though would be well worth it. Just thought, there werea lot of pinch punctures the day we did it too. I don’t know if the extra weight of a tandem makes it more susceptible to these but the wheels will be taking constant big hits off all kinds of pointy edges.

Ta Devs Hmmmmmmmmmmm. manoeuvrability is less of an issue than most folk think as is grounding ( 16.5 inch bb height) W have only once grounded out enough to crash at Dalbeattie. Laggan black tho – Hmmmmm – I have been down (most) of that on a real old shonky solo with 1″ of front sus but Mrs TJ hates rocky stuff. Maybe not – I’ll see how brave she is feeling.

Pinch flats are not a huge issue with high tyre pressures and big tyres on the tandem We tend to pick our way down staff anyway.

As an aside to this – i’ll be in Aviemore in July, start of July and as well as riding a bit round there thought i might go and have a look at Golspie – looks quite nice and can take the aged parents for a drive/day out while i have a ride ! Any pointers or is it get there, get bike out, ride up and down ?

Great routes

Pitlochry – Loch Bhac Circuit (Escape Route Bike Shop in the main street can give you loads of routes)

Dunkeld – Loch Ordie circuit and Birnam Hill – lovely riding. A TJ favourite I believe and rightly so.

Aviemore – Glen Feshie, Carn Ban Mhor, Rothiemurchus – see Dave in Bothy Bikes

You could also do Fort William in an XC jaunt over the Corraiyarick Pass (allow a full day ride for this – I’ve done it sans trailer. V nice indeed)

The first three all lie on the same trail line to Inverness.

PS Ciaran Path at Kinlochleven is sublime. You could do a cracker of a loop from Fort Bill via the mamores. Stuartie_c has a route map on his Flickr account I would recommend that you look at.

Hope this helps?

Cheers

Sanny

Golspie – looks quite nice and can take the aged parents for a drive/day out while i have a ride ! Any pointers or is it get there, get bike out, ride up and down ?

Not an awful lot at Golspie for non riders but the beach is quite nice and there is every chance of seeing seals etc. The trails have their own car park now but no other facilities. I still like to park in the town car park as it’s next to the coffee bothy and chip shop. Last time I was there the toilets which used to double as a good changing room had been levelled but I suspect they were building more. Def worth the trip, the trail from the top has no peer IMNSHO 😀

Ta – I’m sure they will enjoy a walk on the beach while i have a whack round the area. Cheers for the advice.