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Hi guys, I haven't been on here for many, many years but I'm now back in the fold, this time with a bike-mad 11 year old!
We are heading to Dalbeattie for 4 nights next week, and looking to do some riding when over there. I know there is Mabie, Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie itself, but I'm just wondering which is best for an 11 year old who is a confident blue rider, a capable red rider but does prefer flow to bone-shaking tech. For reference our usual haunt is Glentress and he rides and enjoys all the reds there, (loves the odd small-ish drop, loves Twitcher, Spooky Wood, Hitsquad Hill etc as well as the fun blues like Turn and Burn with jumps etc). I've looked online but YouTube videos are sketchy so I thought I'd seek advice from people in the know.
The emphasis here is more on a good time and enjoying the day, rather than skills building.
I'll be on my eeb (sorry) so can tow him when the pedaling get too tough.
Thanks! Chris
I ride the reds and the blues regularly at Dalbeattie on a gravel bike and there are only a few small sections where I need to briefly get off the bike on the reds. I get on the trails at Barnbarroch and get onto the reds from there.
If you are using the Dalbeattie car park then the Blues are quite nice and flowy at that end but when you get further down towards Barnbarroch to Colvend the reds are probably better for you. As you can see I tend to mix them up a bit.
Mabie red would be suitable. 70% singletrack/woods, which is a lot more than Ae, which has a lot of fire roads between stages. No drops/tech really. The few that are there have an easy alternative route. It has a cafe too, which is good. Ae red also, but there is no cafe there now and lots of fireroad.
Thanks guys. Any thoughts on Kirroughtree? A bit more research last night says the blues/reds are pretty good and flowy here too
My kids always loved Kirroughtree and there are plenty of short cut red / mix up red and blue options. Blue has a fire road loop around Doon Hill that we never bothered with (just tended to do red with short cuts when younger).
I have a house in kippford so ride round the forest a lot. Most of the red would be absolutely fine for a confident ‘blue’ rider. There will be some bits that would need to be avoided but most is okay.
There are some lovely trails in the woods above Kippford, accessible from the top of either caravan site or up the track at the side of the mariner pub.
where are you staying?
enjoy your trip
