Me and a mate are planning a trip to the south of Scotland in a couple of weeks, taking in some trail centres as well as some more remote riding. Definitely want to visit Glentress, have friends near Castle douglas and feel like it might be nice to visit the beach at Ayr. Other than that we’re pretty much open to ideas.

Particularly interested in riding some mountains and hopefully throwing in some bothies along the way. Is there something that’s south of Edinburgh for us?

Here’s a pic of the area we’re looking at – Pretty much the 7 Stanes. It’d be good to find some non trail centre based riding as well though.

What do we reckon then?

Kirroughtree is my fave of the 7stanes. Just near Newton Stewart.
Drumlanrig Castle (though might be not be best conditions as been so wet?)

I don’t know about bothies but there aren’t really any mountains south of Edinburgh. Glentress is definitely worth a visit. Kirroughtree is very nice and feels a bit more ‘out there’ than some of the trail centres.

The most southerly proper mountain riding I know in Scotland is Ben Lomond – it’s superb technical riding but it’s still a fairly big detour from your proposed route.

Tinto hill? couple of thousand feet and the highest thing around.

here

Stay over in Glentress/Innerleithen and there is plenty of ‘off-piste’, lots of locals on here.

Hi, If you do the Innerleithen Stane, stay at the bothy, look here for info http://www.southernuplandway.gov.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111&Itemid=307 I don’t know it’s current condition, though.
Then up through the Glen estate and Birk’s cairn , gypsy glen descent to Peebles and go to glentress

There’s lots of natural (and proper challenging rides) around Innerleithen and the Southern Upland way.

Bothy’s on the way:
http://www.southernuplandwayholidays.com/bothies-c127.html

I would say yours is a pretty sensible route – you’ll have to miss out some stuff no matter what you do. But you’re so close to Drumlanrig, Mabie, Ae,…. decisions decisions…..

You could do a variation of the Southern Upland Way (coast to coast) taking in any of Kirroughtree, Drumlanrigg, Ae, Glentress and Innerleithen along the way.

I did the section from Portpatrick to Dalry (St Johns) last year and have a 3 day bikepacking trip planned in 2 weeks to do Dalry to Galashiels. There are a few bothys along the way too – there’s been a fair bit posted on here regarding the routes, here’s one of the threads from last year

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/southern-upland-way-4

How much time do you have?

>Particularly interested in riding some mountains and hopefully throwing in some bothies along the way. Is there something that’s south of Edinburgh for us?<

You really need to drive up to Perthshire and beyond to get both.

Really appreciate all this advice, thanks people.

Looks like Kirroughtree and Drumlanrig are on the list too now. There really is too much to fit in. Would love to do Ben Lomond but think we’re going to stick to the south for this trip.

rudedog – Member
You could do a variation of the Southern Upland Way (coast to coast) taking in any of Kirroughtree, Drumlanrigg, Ae, Glentress and Innerleithen along the way.

Sounds like a great idea, but this is our first trip like this so we’re going with driving between rides this time around. I’d love to get kitted out with some bike packing kit but having just finished a bike build I’m currently skint. The thought of doing it all with a 3kg tent, 2kg sleeping bag etc is just too much!

ivnickkate – Member
Hi, If you do the Innerleithen Stane, stay at the bothy

Think we’ll do just that thanks!

Can’t wait now. Scotland, bikes, bothies, singletrack, single malt, what could be better?