Where To Ride In Scotland – Where’s Open? Where Opens Soon?

With venues around Scotland (and Wales) starting to slowly open as lockdown eases (or not, in some cases…) we’ve been in touch with the fine people at Developing Mountain Biking In Scotland (DMBinS) to bring you their handy guide as to where you can and can’t ride within Scotland, plus some all-important details on camping and campervans.

The spokeswoman at DMBinS gave us this initial statement: “Travel restrictions in Scotland are being lifted from tomorrow, with the exception of some of the areas within Dumfries and Galloway.  To this end we have set up a ‘one stop shop’ for mountain bikers to help them make the best choices for travel.  Not all trail centres will be opening and we hope that this web page, which we will update regularly, will be welcomed by the mountain bike community.  We are working closely with all facility operators across Scotland to ensure that this is current and we hope that this will stop folks travelling to closed sites.  We are hoping to have further FLS sites turned green from this weekend…”

Unfortunately, events like Tweedlove won’t be happening at all this year, but there’s reasonable hope that the trails they would have used are going to be rideable. But where to ride can be a bit of an issue unless you have local knowledge of what’s open and when. Luckily DMBinS has made a super-handy single webpage resource for anyone hoping to visit Scotland to go riding, with easy to read green/amber/red traffic light indications as to which places are open, opening soon and not open at all:

http://www.dmbins.com/developing/covid-19/mtb-trail-centres-scotland-covid-19

There is another page that details overnight stays and the definition of ‘fully self contained accommodation’ – including campervans etc, and the continuation of the restrictions around wild camping. (In short – you need self-contained loo/shower kind of campervan – and wild camping is still not allowed but perhaps will be by July 15th)

http://www.dmbins.com/developing/covid-19/guidance-for-mtb-riders

Here is VisitScotland’s guide to how the various phases of reopening will happen and what they all mean:

https://www.visitscotland.com/about/practical-information/covid-19-recovery-phases/

So, for the moment, it looks like complicated places, like Glentress, will remain closed for the moment, but more, er, ‘primitive’ facilities, like Innerleithen, will be open from this weekend.

Take care out there and make sure you’re well prepared for your visit – for instance, face masks will be compulsory in all Scottish shops, loos might not be open (though there is this fabulous crowd-sourced guide to open public loos linked on the page – lockdownloo.com)

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