Heading to Dalbeattie on holiday...

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

Posted by: Viktor Balzac

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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

Thanks for this! We are staying in Dalbeattie itself, we've gone for a little air bnb. I'm leaning towards heading to Kirroughtree for a full days riding, and then heading into Dalbeattie forest for a smaller session and see how he goes in there. 

Any suggestions on other nice things to see/do in the area are also welcome 😆 

Cheers!

I absolutely hated the Kirroughtree black, which is the other stuff plus a bit more. Dull and repetitive old school XC riding.

I remember Mabie being good fun

I would agree with Kramer Mabie red is good fun if you are planning a drive out

Some other ideas here

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/off-topic/dumfries-and-galloway-recommendations-please/

I would add the Red Deer Range but remember to take some carrots or bits of apple

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/destinations/red-deer-range

Ah gosh - I'll have to do more research then! Fun is the name of the game - flowy and jumpy ideal! Mabie is the one I haven't really looked at. 

And thank you for the ideas!

Don't forget to buy some Golden Wonder crisps, as it's about the only place in the country where you can still get them.

The reiver's road through the Forest of Galloway is pleasant as well.

Kippford is definitely worth a visit with a couple of pubs and a tea room. Nice walk to Rockcliffe through the woods from there.

Get the tide times right at Rockcliffe and the swimming is great, the water is really warm at the moment. Rockcliffe also has an Ice Cream van every day.

Mabie is ace.

The Black at Kirroughtree is completly free of flow and has a very old school feel with the 'tech' comining from random rock outcrops. McMoab and pretty unique is fun and pretty unique but you can park next to it and save the slog. The blues and reds are good though.

There is also Glentrool which has a simple blue circut the end of which is fast and flowy and can be lapped by going back up the fire road on the right where the section exits. You can also then add in a loop of the loch on good tracks and lovely scenary.

All of the above are good tbh - we just got back from a week up there and did Kirroughtree (twice), Glentrool, Mabie and Ae all on different days - we have done a week up there every year for  the  last 6 years so something is bringing us back!!!

discusding it this year with my two lads (who ba dmittedky are now in their late twenties!) we concluded that Mabie red is our current favourite - but tbh I’m sure you’ll enjoy any/all of them as they all have their good bits!

(whilst Glentrool is short and a fair chunk of the climbing is fireroad, the descent, which is basically the entire second half of the loop, is fantastic!)

Deffo K'tree and Mabie for flow. Lots of fun to be had around the trailhead car park/skills area at Dalbeattie.

Drop into Kirkcudbright for chippy tea on the way back from K'tree and have a couple hours in Castle Douglas.

I should have said above - if you’re passing Gatehouse of Fleet and fancy a pub tea - the Masonic Arms is excellent 👍 

We just came back from staying in Sandyhills, for a non-bike related activity, try the Otter Pools on Raiders Road, take a big inflatable hoop/donut for the natural rock slides.

Did Kirroughtree blue at the weekend with my daughter and nephew (both 7) and they loved it. It's the best maintained Galloway 'Stane' (by a mile), plus there's the shop/cafe etc for fuelling up.

Mabie Red's really good (my most regular haunt) but the Blue's a bit of a nothing though. A couple of really short stretches of single-track to break up the monotonous fire road drag.

Dalbeattie Stane's a love/hate place. I love it. Wife hates it. I think it's definitely one of the trickier/technical Reds and it got *battered* by the storms a couple of years ago and it's suffered woefully from FLS' neglect. It's well worth a pootle through, you're literally right on it and can be in it from Dalbeattie within a couple of minute's ride. Check out the paths to and from Kippford/Rockcliffe - you could make a nice, albeit fairly sedate, pootle to and from Dalbeattie to Kippford, through the forest / jubilee paths for food at either the Anchor/Mariner pubs, or the BBQ shack at the golf club at the weekends. All recommended.

Kippford's my smiles over miles place if I want a change of scenery from Mabie/Ae. The forest behind the village has loads of tricky little trails and finishing off with a pint or burger is always nice. 

Dalbeattie itself's got the massive pump track at Rocks n Wheels now, which is genuinely top class. They're still very early phase opening so times/opening etc may be a bit sporadic (check that Facebook page, basically).

Ae's a bit further afield, and you'd have to pass Mabie to get there. If you want to see FLS neglect vs locals doing their absolute best to keep a beloved trail network alive at it's finest, there's plenty of top stuff in there. The loss of the cafe & shop was a bitter blow, but the second half of the blue's good fun (just grit in for the long fire-road draggy climb to get there). The Red's long and in dire need of maintenance but lots of great sections to it.  

Enjoy, it's a nice spot!

Thanks guys - some great help here! I think Mabie red is the one to go for, and we'll go for a blast around Dalbeattie as its so local. 

Red deer range via the Otter pools sounds good, praying for clear weather to catch the Perseid meteor shower in the dark skies...

Lots of walks, pubs, food, views, food, and a boot full of golden wonder crisps. Ideal!

Thanks!

My 5 year old and 8 year old enjoyed the kirroughtree blue, as mentioned above the mabie blue is a bit meh with that sharp steep climb (for a 5 year old)  before miles of forest road back. 

Well we are back! WE had a lovely time away and decided to do Mabie reds which he enjoyed, apart from the random climbs in the middle of a trail 🤣 

We also went to Dalbeattie and as said, the blues by the car park end are great fun but then it turns into fire roads, so we diverted into some reds which we enjoyed. Didnt have time for Kirroughtree unfortunately. 

But we did enjoy the red deer range, galloway forest (stargazing), the little planetarium in Kirkcudbright (however the rest of Kirkcudbright seemed closed on that day), walks through the woods to Kippford and Rockliffe, red kite centre, Gatehouse of Fleet is lovely too. 

I'd love to return to take in Kirroughtree and possible some wild camping around Clatteringshamw Loch.

Thanks for the tips guys!