[Closed] Even in Scotland, the 'powers that be' trash trails

"Working forest in working forest shocker"

I'm not sure if they should have felled the immature trees or driven over the un-compacted more natural terrain instead?

You don't HAVE to drive along a trail

Actually, i'm fairly certain they do.

Where about is that in khill?

If it's any consolation, those muddy forest machinery tyre tracks can be an amazing amount of fun to ride if they are on a gradient, we spent a few weekends tidying up and riding them in our local forest, sort of like muddy bobsled runs.

This ^ is very true. Spooky Woods at Glentress was much better when it was a dual slalom track!

If it's any consolation, those muddy forest machinery tyre tracks can be an amazing amount of fun to ride if they are on a gradient

Just seems that Forestry Scotland has abandoned all bike trails and are felling all mature stuff.

After all it is working land after all its all money at the end of the day.

Moray has been devastated by the local forestry MOST TRAILS being closed or abandoned "Due to Harvesting" but they still charge for parking at some trail heads. In some cases the abandoned trails they have vandalised to the point making them dangerous.

Kirkhill is also about to get a dual-carraigeway running right through it. It may be that they're clearing all this in advance of the earth movers arriving.

Kirkhill is also about to get a dual-carraigeway running right through it. It may be that they're clearing all this in advance of the earth movers arriving.

Are you sure of this?

http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/187071330 AWPR route map

The forestry in Aberdeenshire seems to be sytematically making some of the most amazing forests in the area look like Hiroshima. In the process they have written off some stunning MTB trails. Lets hope they don't get the rest of it.

Its a commercial forest, a completely unnatural landscape of foreign tree species planted at great density purely to be cut down for profit in the future, you can't really expect anything else.

But some of the trails have been put in by freely given money and donations and is fundamentally wrong NOT to reinstate trails. Tantamount to theft in my eyes.

Well said, the point is they are decimating public footpaths, bridleways and rights of way without making any effort whatsoever to repair the damage they have done. A knock on effect is that some of the best MTB trails in the UK are being caught in the crossfire. This hideous form of felling leaves the landscape looking awful and it would be interesting to see if they intend to replant with the same cash crop or a more environmentally sound indigenous broad leaf as in other parts of the UK.

If you know of any Rights of Way that are blocked by felling you should report them to Scotways (info@scotways.com) or even just let me know and I'll contact them for you.

Bridleways: I didn't know we had any of those in Scotland.

[quote=yetidave > http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/187071330 AWPR route map

Yup thats the route I thought it was. Hardly

running right through it

I'll pop up thursday to look do you have info on ROW routes for this area?

As above, it is a commercial forest in an unnatural landscape.
BUT.

They have taken public money and in some cases donations and funding, and seem to make little effort to avoid damaging the trails and re-instating.

That pic at the top shows that a machine, driven 10' to one side, would only cross a trail for a short length, so meaning that reinstatement or on-going access would cost a minimal amount. It seems though in some cases they are driving along the trail, thereby maximising damage and cost of reinstatement or reducing future access.

I wonder what people would say if a road was damaged and left in a similar state?

Kirkhill is also about to get a dual-carraigeway running right through it. It may be that they're clearing all this in advance of the earth movers arriving.
Are you sure of this?

Not at all.. but having tried our normal ride out from Craibstone College and seen the carnage there, it wouldn't surprise me if there's going to be a lot of clearing at Kirkhill, even if it's just for access during the build.

If you know of any Rights of Way that are blocked by felling you should report them to Scotways (info@scotways.com) or even just let me know and I'll contact them for you.

^ yep, I'd be very surprised if the FC were permanently removing or damaging ROW, they know the rules, and if they really are destroying and not reinstating trails built by donation/funding then I would definitely be having a word with those that let you do the trail building work, but I don't think you could ever think it would be forever in a commercial forest.

I do view creation and use of trails in FC forests as a privilege though, not many landowners would be so willing to let us have our fun.

It's all part of the ebb and flow of large scale land use. Wait until the Wind Turbines arrive 😀

Looks far more radcore gnar to the max now anyway.

If the sign had said "New Enduro-path now Open" with a big arrow, the trailhead car park would be brimming with Volkswagon campers, Skodas and Audis 😀

(Or worse things have happened at sea as your nan may have said)

Trash the trails on or near the site, so Joe Public has no desire to go there while the harvesting is carried out.
Just my theory, after seeing it going on in Highland region too.

Hang on, looking at that "footpath" it's a bit bloody wide isn't it? Either whoever built it could have made 4x the length with the same surface area, or they were taking advantage of an existing forestry track...
If it was an existing forestry track it seems a bit disingenuous to complain that forestry business is also using the track every 10 or 20 years or so. It is about that for a crop isn't it?

Obviously I am only commenting on the situation in the picture.

Bloomin' Scots, never happy. It's not like you have restrictions on your access is it.....

😉

It's a tricky one. It's hard not to feel upset when one of your favourite trails gets trashed. On the other hand, there are thousands of miles of trails through forestry commission land in Scotland and we have the right of responsible access to all of it. Part of the deal is that we don't interfere with the rights of the landowner to carry out their business. Basically we get to spend years enjoying some great trails, but have to accept that sooner or later they all get destroyed. It's not such a bad deal really.

My main beef is that it's Kirkhill. Basically the nearest 'trail centre' to the biggest concentration of population in the area. They also clear felled all around the Gordon Way at Bennachie. Destroying one of the most picturesque trails (multi-use) in the area. At least they didn't drive the logging tractors along the trails there though!

I think with all the vast forests around the region, they should be more careful with the handful that they actually go to the trouble of promoting as leisure destinations with leaflets, maps and websites! "Here's a lovely place to visit, now watch us trash it!"

For anyone still wanting the location, using 'Strava speak' it's at the end of 'Gorse Prickle Singletrack'. Part of the official red (does not indicate technical grade - it's a green) route.

EDIT: I just checked the route map of the bypass. it's pretty much going through the area in the photo! That Strava KOM will stand forever now!

Dammit, I had that KOM for ages and some bugger has taken it by 1 second. 😀

On the upside, it's not one of the best trails at Kirkhill.

Bridleways: I didn't know we had any of those in Scotland.

Dammit, I had that KOM for ages and some bugger has taken it by 1 second.

I reckon in 2018, that the KOM will be taken by a roadie! The trail is parallel to the Northbound carriageway!

So, just to clarify..

That track shown in the photo is going to be obliterated by a dual carriageway. Why then would the forestry vehicles try to avoid it?

I know that now... hindsight is a wonderful thing. You may only have 15 minutes of it on stw.

Still, I quite like this thread even if it was ultimately pointless! The photo is nice I think.

😀

This happened a few years back on a couple of the better trails round the back of KH which is why I've only ridden there once in the last 3 years despite living 10 minutes away. KH used to be my go to trails but it's just so rubbish it's not worth the effort to ride out from town or even drive there. Pitfichie is starting to get the same as there has been pretty much zero maintenance work done by the FC on the trails over the last couple of years which is a shame as both it and KH have got so much potential to be so much better than they are.

Hmm, most of what was spoiled has been replaced with trails that are equally as good I reckon. It's different but there's still good trails there.

I'm sure the FC or local trail building fairies could use some feedback/ideas/manual labour to help them improve the place.

Quite right. What I should have said was trails used by horse riders or from an MTB point of view, trails covered in horse s**t.

Meanwhile I've been muttering because the FC has resurfaced several trails in this area and taken all the fun out of them.

Poor buggers, can't win...

It's not so much that they can't win. Unless it's GT the FC just don't seem to give a toss about any of the trails on their land. Yet they're quick enough to stick in parking meters and charge you to park to use the said trails and claim it's to help with the upkeep etc etc which is just BS for give us your money because we ain't making enough on the commercial side at the minute!

Even at GT its not about upkeep. In fact there are mutterings about them closing/not bothering with the black.

There used to be a nice wee bit of singletrack on the cross border from keilder to newcastleton, which is now pretty much a pavement. Recreational cyclists not mountain bikers are the big cash cow.

The resurfacing does make it pleasanter for walkers.

We can't really complain, the trails are for sharing after all.

Anyway, I'll give it a few months until the horsey people find them. That will quickly revert them back to a rocky, muddy, rooty mess.

Even at GT its not about upkeep

I don't agree with that, there's been loads of maintenance the last couple of years and areas of recent felling such as pennel's vennel and blue velvet have new surfaces.

Do FC build and maintain mountain bike trails? I thought they just let folk use the trails they'd made and build some of their own on the grounds that it takes ten years for trees to grow. But the deal was that you couldn't make a fuss when the time came to harvest the trees and your trail got trashed. Maybe there is more to it than than that though.

Personally, one of the things I like about off-road cycling is the way the trials change over time. A smooth path can get washed out by winter storms, then a smoother line may form as people use it or it may get churned up by some heavy machinery, but it's all part of the fun. Plays havoc with Strava leaderboards though, I guess.

bigjim - Member

I don't agree with that, there's been loads of maintenance the last couple of years and areas of recent felling such as pennel's vennel and blue velvet have new surfaces.

There's some truth in it- the maintenance at GT is inadequate and mostly volunteer, there's exceptions like as you say Blue Velvet recently, Spooky Woods a couple of years back- both times after forestry work that made a rebuild really necessary due to the amount of trail damage.

Usually they take good care of the trails while working around them, and they just need patching afterwards (like former ewok village, a while back). The (rubbish) rebuild on Pennel's Vennel was actually a repair for water damage rather than felling. (not GT, but the innerleithen climb's a perfect example of how well it can work, they clearfelled a whole block but the trail was almost untouched)

But it is definitely true that the maintenance is stretched too thin... There's talk of decommissioning less popular parts of the trail network. As I understood it the new trail we put in for the EWS that cuts down from Boundary to Deliverance was supposed to enable them to remove most of Boundary from the formal trail network, for much this reason. Though I'm not sure if that's worked out as we built it a bit steep 🙂

Its a great bit of trail that, maybe steeper than people are used to at GT but it is supposed to be the black.

I think there are more cuts due to FC funding so I suppose this will continue