[Closed] Seven Stanes, which three must I ride?

Tweed
Kirro
Mabie

Bigdugsbaws (best username on here btw!) is spot on.

Can do 2 of Ae/MAdie/Balbeattie/Drumlanrig? in a day (can't remember how far apart they all are)

Eh? Kirroughtree and mabie over glentress and innerleithen? Are you mad? If you do glentress, link to the red from the radio mast on the black and session spooky woods.

Tweed = GT/Inners

Oops 🙂

If you do glentress, link to the red from the radio mast on the black and session spooky woods.

Ot just keep doing the black. Spooky Wood is over rated. The Boundry Trail is so much better. Then go even better and play at Innerleithen, so many amazing trails there if you go a looking.

Session spooky woods if you like jumping.

Cheers guys, it's a boys wknd so plenty of messing around seasoning stuff!

Innerleithen/GT
Dalbeattie
Mabie

Can do 2 of Ae/MAdie/Balbeattie/Drumlanrig? in a day (can't remember how far apart they all are)

Definitely can, I did Ae/Mabie/Dalbeattie in the same day.

I'd go for

Kirro and Dalbeattie
Ae & Mabie (poss switch Mabie & Dalbeattie can't remember trail lengths)
Tweed

Tick off Newcastleton on the way back home.

If weather forecast is good, Kirroughtree full black/red (if weather turns bad there are some quite exposed sections) and if you like that for riding then do Dalbeattie and Mabie. If you prefer 'Llandegla' type trail centres then undoubtedly Glentress and Innerliethen.
Dont forget if you want to keep the driving between down the first three are the western side of Dumfries the latter two are more to the east and IMO its best if you only have a few days to do one side or the other then next years trip do the other.
Only drawer back is when you come back to southern trail centres they just aint quite the same (purely my opinion of course).

Eh? Kirroughtree and mabie over glentress and innerleithen? YES.....Are you mad..NO....

Got to declare a bias for the D&G Stanes being a Doonhamer 😛

Do you need to be near a town/pub?

Suggestions for accom unless you need bb...
http://www.gorsebank.com/gorsebank_equestrian/Gorsebank_Mobile.html
http://www.mabiehousehotel.co.uk/pod-continental-camping-huts-c23.html
http://www.marthrownofmabie.com/

As TSY says you can if fit enough do 2-3 D&G Stanes in a day. Most of the red routes can be done in 2hrs(obviously depending on fitness & sessioning?) . Kirry black can take 4hrs or so.
From Dumfries Kirry is a 1hr drive.
Dalbeattie and Ae approx 1/2hr drive.
Mabie 20mins unless staying in a pod or bunkhouse.
Drumlanrig is 45mins up thr '76.

Give a local a shout for the "tour" of either Mabie or Dalbeattie 😉

Personally not been to GT for nearly a year. Been to Inners once but rode various local stuff. It is fun but given the choice of driving for 1.1/2hrs I prefer heading down to the Lakes.

Deffo Kirroughtree black

Glentress and Innerliethen are one stane, although even if they were 2 they'd each have more than any of the other stanes.
Easy enough even in late december to fit in for eg inners xc, GT red with black bits and a play on the freeride park as the light goes
You'd still have GT black/inners DH runs for abnother visit to mix/match into

If north shore style skinnies and whatnot then if its still standing then Mabies Kona Dark Side plus the XC and a play on the 4X

If you want to mix in some DH runs with a 7stane XC trail, then Ae?

Else Dalbaettie for the 3rd

Seomthing like that. Glentrool/Newcastleton(even with Kielder) I'd maybe save for another time If you're trying to do a 3 best of type trip

If you've to fit travel into the 3 days timing can start to make things harder IMO/IME. Also depending how far you've to come from
Kirroughtree/Dalbaettie/Mabie/Ae aren't thaaat far from one abother with GT//inners that much further over Scotland.

Excuse my ignorance but where is tweed?

Tweed Valley

Obliged.

Golspie.. Drop the rest.

well yes, but its not a stane

I think you might be better off describing your favourite kinda riding first. They are all very different...

coogan - Member
If you do glentress, link to the red from the radio mast on the black and session spooky woods.
Ot just keep doing the black. Spooky Wood is over rated. The Boundry Trail is so much better. Then go even better and play at Innerleithen, so many amazing trails there if you go a looking.

Glentress, Kirroughtree aaaaand.... Depends. Innerleithen is the best if you include the DH and off-piste stuff but a bit meh otherwise. I really like Mabie but that seems to be a wee bit unusual.

Doing two days later this year, will be Kirroughtree red and black then Dalbeattie and Mabie in one day, and if I can remember bits Mabie Secrets 🙂 but that suits our riding.

Knowing riding genre would help say which centre suits.

Glentress - awesome, something for everyone. Even blue is good.

Kirroughtree - Very very flowing and enjoyable to ride.

Ae - Lots of variety of terrain in a single lap of the red.

I basically ride reds, blacks at trail centres, natural stuff in the peaks and have just been out to Morzine, I'm a regular at Lee Quarry and Gisburn and occasionally go to Llandegla, If I'm honest Llandegla bores me! I'm on a Meta 5 so not a xc whippet, love to go down hill and climb as well.

Cheers for all the advice, is there any reason that none has mentioned Newcastleton?

[i]is there any reason that none has mentioned Newcastleton? [/i]

Probably that is only worth it if you are passing, rather than going there specific.

Disagree!! Spooky Wood was so much fun just like a roller coaster!!

A very flat one though. That's my beef with GT the trails are great, just too flat.
It depends on the riding you want really, Inners has a better variety of downhills but the climbs are pretty uninspiring. My one world of advice is stay away from AE!

Disagree!! Spooky Wood was so much fun just like a roller coaster!!

A very flat one though. That's my beef with GT the trails are great, just too flat.
It depends on the riding you want really, Inners has a better variety of downhills but the climbs are pretty uninspiring. My one world of advice is stay away from AE!

Any particular reason to stay away from AE?

been looking at glospie myself but its well outta the way, is there anywere else up near glospie you can do? or anything in general apart from golf that would make the trip up more rewarding?

hear a few slating ae say itsnot as good from it opened. ive only done kt as its first place i meet, wanna do inners/gt. or sooner the propsed trails open up over here the better.

Ae isn't bad at all, it just suffers by being close to Drumlanrig, Mabie, Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie, which are all an awful lot better IMO.

Golspie is superb, but yep, inconveniently placed. If you're driving, you can go up the west and get Fort William in on the way, or up the east and visit Laggan. Also up in the Golspie area is Learnie (which is alright but felt pretty forgotten about when I was there, and had lost a big section to clearfelling, but on the plus side has an ace jump line) Carbisdale (which is lovely) and Balblair (which is absolutely brilliant). PLus no doubt a billion miles of quality natural stuff.

aguesty1 - Member
So I'm going up to Scotland riding for 3 days and want some advice.

Basically which 3 out of the 7 must I ride in the 3 days that I'm there, advice appreciated....

Wonder how many times this debate has been aired over the years ❓
Sure it will continue as long as there is stw 😆

Don't bother with Drumlanrig... they even charge £6 a person now and its fricken miles from the motorway.

But if you do go the black isn't scary its just a few roots and steep uppy bits.

Personally I'd stick with Glentress (well worth two days of play) and then hop over the innerleithen, maybe do Kielder on the way home?

Drum's still cheap at £6, fantastic place to ride. But there's a lot of competition in the area to be fair, guess it depends what you like.