Kirroughtree's riddled with nice little rooty natural trails (gets used in races), but it'd be tough to helpfully describe. Probably not worthwhile without a local in tow to help you link it up.

If you're in the area for a few days and like twisty, rooty stuff, you could do worse than head to Drumlanrig.

Not so familiar with Dalbeattie, beyond the waymarked stuff.

Some of the off piste in Dalbeattie has been tagged with white tape, which is helpful BUT the trouble will be finding your way after you come out of the trail. It's a proper rabbit warren of fire road in there! The widowmaker is worth a look. Can be found a couple of ways but one of the easiest is to head right up the hill on the fire road after you've done the drop on Moyles Descent. Trail is on the left shortly after you've crested the hill.

I found the widowmaker (most badly named trail ever award on Strava) earlier in the year while staying up there and exploring as I was riding on my own.
Nice section though but you'd have trouble making your wife a widow on it.
Main problem if your in a group is faffing around looking for stuff that might be rubbish while at a trail centre.

I like Kirroughtree just the way it is without the need for anythiing extra, but that's probabaly because we always do it on day 2 of a 2 day Scotland biking weekend!

Dalbeattie first 50% is very good, I loved the rocky technical bits. But after that it's like they ran out of ideas and it gets boring very quickly.

Drumlanrig is very technical and full of roots. I don't mind technical but some of the roots there are a bit OTT for me.

I have nothing to add RE off piste!

tomlevell - Member
I found the widowmaker (most badly named trail ever award on Strava) earlier in the year while staying up there and exploring as I was riding on my own.

That bit is probably the 3rd gen route.
20 odd yrs ago when us country boys were riding Raleigh Mustangs and the like it was a serious contender for a visit to A&E!
If you do happen to find it turn left up the Big Easy which brings you out onto a forest road. Turn left again and rejoin red/blue where you dropped off the Moyle.
As said above, lots of wee off piste sections but requires a lot of forest road and hill climbing to get round them all.
There is a coastal path from Kipford to Sandyhills which if the weather is good makes for a good ride if you don't mind a bit of hiking through fields. Return to main forest trail via track leading to forest beside Colvend village hall.

PS watch your speed on the roads, local traffic cops are having a blitz.
http://www.dgsafetycameras.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=9972

20 odd yrs ago when us country boys were riding Raleigh Mustangs and the like it was a serious contender for a visit to A&E!

Still blooming well feels like it on the ar$e-up-head-doon XC race bike, especially in the wet!

I think Mabie has some cracking off piste sections, but they can be very hard to find and even follow at times.

True 😉
+ it all depends on your level of experience. Met a guy to show round recently. Talked the talk in the car park but we ended up riding the main trail at Dalbeattie and he struggled with that!

I was amazed at the amount of off piste trails I saw at kirroughtree, especially as there was no one riding on the main trails. Didn't do any exploring though, I was on my own, had no phone signal and no clue where I was, so I couldn't tell you if it was worth doing.

The last half of the black, from the top of the big hill after the road crossing is awesome, I thought the rest was fair to middling if I'm honest.

Trekster very kindly gave us the guided tour of Dalbeattie a while back, some really nice riding but also broke up the trailcentre a bit, welcome injection of variety. I'll say nothing about the really easy trail I broke my ribs on mind, except that he's lucky I didn't sue

tomlevell - Member
I found the widowmaker (most badly named trail ever award on Strava) earlier in the year while staying up there and exploring as I was riding on my own.

That bit is probably the 3rd gen route.
20 odd yrs ago when us country boys were riding Raleigh Mustangs and the like it was a serious contender for a visit to A&E!

Excuses excuses.
I found some other stuff too but I'm not outing other peoples off piste for them.

Worked out how to get to the lovely singletrack climb to the slab from the main road near Kippford which was a big bonus from where we were staying.

As said above as a trail centre the red at Dalbeattie really does need some more stuff in the second half.

I might be at Mabie on Sunday if your about I know a few of the local bits I could point you in the direction of

Might venture out as well depending on how sore my head is after Saturdays outing to Sulwath!!
What time?

Some loverly natural stuff in Dalbeattie.

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