[Closed] 7 Staines first trip - must do rides?

What sort of riding are you most up for doing? Are you more downhilly focused or ragging it around blue/red/XC type trails?

Hey Pinkster - Blue/red trails, with a nice decent - something that has a nice flow.
Though Rascal is a bit more aggressive.
Antur Stiniog as an example.

Cheers Nish!
We've done Morzine and Stiniog a few times but done plenty of trail stuff too - whatever gives us the best possible few days TBH...

We went last bank holiday and did, kirroughtree and dalbeatie in one day, as we were staying in dalbeatie, glentress the next. With winlatter on the way up and gisburn on the way down. Loved it all, glentress has loads and loads and loads, we could have done another day there with all the unmarked stuff

Yeah, the big question is trailcentre, or base of operations. But a lot of the offpistes will take you past the whole red/blue remit.

I think for trailcentre alone, this might be blasphemy but I'd do the west. Kirroughtree for sure, then your pick of Dalbeattie, Mabie and Drumlanrig. Mabie and Drum are shorter so 2 in a day is pretty feasible even if you're not super fit. Ae, I'd not bother personally.

If you're happy going offmap a bit then the tweed valley comes into its own. Glentress obviously speaks for itself, 2 good days there no bother and also some accessible offpiste that makes up a third, and it's very expandable/tweakable so you can do a black here, a red there... Inners red, I know people love but for me it's too much filler, it has some brilliant wee moments though.

If you're happy to up the stakes a little then you could ride in the valley for a week and never ride anything that wasn't awesome tbh.

The Kirroughtree black is great but it's a fairly long ride and it would be a slog to get there from Peebles, ride it and return to Peebles in a day. I'm not much of a fan of Dalbeattie myself, but Mabie is nice and you should definitely give Drumlanrig a go too.

You'll find plenty to enjoy around Glentress and Innerleithen too, particularly if you can arrange a local guide.

Peebles for me. You got Glentress on and off piste, Innerleithen on and off piste, you got Gypsy Glen, you got Cademuir forest and you've also got The Golfie. Plenty to choose from. In fact if you drive through Innerleithen and down to Thornylee, stuff there too. But dunno how much has been left after the forestry works.

+1 for Kirroughtree, gotta do the full red and black loop so you get my mob and that long flowy techie descent from the top all the way back to the vc

As a rough guide if you base yourself in the Dumfries area Kirroughtree is an hours drive away.
Mabie and Ae are 20mins or so and Dalbeattie 30mins.
Drumlanrigg is 30/40mins depending on time of day and traffic.
GT/Inners I'd best part of 1.1/2hrs drive.

So first half day could be Ae, showers and food available.
2nd day Kirry + Dalbeattie unless you do some touristy sightseeing etc Check Laggan Outdoors .
3rd day Mabie and Drum. Good food to be had in Thornhill
Last day? Whinlatter as above suggestion, only 1/2hr from M6

Check upliftscotland for Inners DH uplifts if you fancy that sort of thing.

Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie sounds like considerably more riding to do in a day than Mabie and Drumlanrig, so you may want to consider how to parcel out your legs over the holiday if you're as slack as I am. 🙂

Personally I'd think that getting in some of the Tweed Valley trails would be better than Dalbeattie or Ae, but given they're relatively far apart from the other trail centres it may be a bit tricky to fit it all in.

Blue/red trails, with a nice decent - something that has a nice flow.

If you are near Kirroughtree, go and ride the blue up the road at Glentrool. Longest descent on the 7 Stanes, allegedly. Worth the soul destroying slog to get up there. Very underrated.

g in some of the Tweed Valley trails would be better than Dalbeattie or Ae, but given they're relatively far apart

Have to disagree 😉 😆
My qualification being someone who has ridden all the trails mention many years before 7Stanes. NB the spelling of STANES 💡
Lots of people cite the Tweed Valley and then go on to recommend the Enduro trails or all the off piste stuff. Which is great but as a visitor with no knowledge of the area you will waste a lot of time finding the stuff.
Ae has loads of off piste/Enduro and DH trails having held many events recently. We created the first DH trail in '97, previous events being held at Mabie.
Kirry is also a venue for Enduro/duathalon and SXC racing.
Dalbeattie is also on the SXC calendar and has some short but good off piste trails and a coastal trail to add on.
Mabie also has its " secrets" 😉

This; http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wanlockhead-gold-rush-1 is a better ride than the Gypsy Glen imo and there are others in the area 💡

Doing Dalbeattie and KT in the same day sounds orrible. I could do it but it'd be a great way to take the fun out of it, especially on a first visit.

Northwind - Member
Doing Dalbeattie and KT in the same day sounds orrible. I could do it but it'd be a great way to take the fun out of it, especially on a first visit.

Aye, that's for the stw fit freaks 😉
Have done it and an Ae/Drum double when I was younger & fitter 🙄
Have also cycled from town, through Mabie to Dalbeattie and back on a 60miler many moons ago

Was a tough day that one, I must admit.

You can't go far wrong with the suggestions above. If you want to do the off piste stuff in the valley you could speak to Ridelines about hiring a guide for a day, they can pick out the best stuff for your abilities. Or you could go into one of the shops with a map and some biscuits. You'll also see plenty of folks on the trails that can point you in the right direction.

I'd make a day of Kirroughtree and maybe include Glentrool. Mabie and Dalbeattie on another day. Then Ae and Drumlanrig on a third day. If you need to drop some of these then don't do Glentrool and do Drumlanrig over Ae but only if you love roots. If you hate roots go to Ae.