Good Morning Folks,
I used to ride (going back a lot of years now!) the Moray Monster Trails from the car park near Mulben. I went up a few years back (pre Trail Forks) and couldn't find any of the trail heads. Then I did a bit of scrambling behind what looked like fresh tree planting and groundworks and found the start of the old Hammer route, the one with the wooden picnic table half way round? It was slimy and unridden, and the features had been bulldozed.
So what happened? The Fochabers Ring and the trails at Ordiequish are still there (although I see the gully monster has recently been closed).
With the constant growth in mountain biking and the UK/Scot Gov. mandate for a healthier, more active population, why was the Ben Aigan side torn apart?
Perhaps rose tinted glasses but I recall it was like a mini version of todays Glenlivet trail centre. The Hammer and the Mast Blast in particular.
Are any of the trails still there? Any rideable with local knowledge? Or did FLS make it impossible to even try?
Thansk
Dave
I tried going round the hammer a year or so back, but there is a big ravine that used to have a bridge over it and is now quite a tricky carry. Not sure why it was demolished but they basically removed all the wooden features (including bridges). The trails are still there but are used so rarely that they are now very overgrown. I miss the hammer too. It was fun but also a good workout being basically a loop round the top of the mountain. Maybe there is just no demand for that type of XC trail these days.
aw man. the gulley monster was great... the one time i managed to get a bike and my work in the same location at the same time.
A lack of desire to maintain them? Plans for the forest meant the trails would be removed due to harvesting? A total short-sighted vision that didn't include recreational use of land? A complete intended removal to encourage people to go elsewhere? A lack of interest from the local Forestry so was easier to remove what they could so it became unusable? A lack of interaction between Forestry and a local MTB group to maintain the trails, resulting in it all landing on Forestry and they didn't want the work/hassle/bother?
Absolutely no idea but the above are some suggestions that may have some truth in a variety of them...or may be completely wrong...
There was a guy on here who was involved in the trails, but I can't remember his name/username and also can't remember when I last saw him on here but it was a few years back...
@roverpig, That's a real shame. Sounds like it wouldn't be worth it. I used to ride it a lot when all the other trails locally where either snowbound or just too claggy to be fun. The surface was generally really good for year round riding. Great for newcomers to the sport too.
I'm just curious as to why they were removed and the trails closed. To my knowledge (and as you says its XC!) they are not dangerous or causing folks to send massive drops and hurt themselves.
The cost of putting the trails in properly in the first place must have been really high, even if there was an ongoing maintenance cost, it must only have been very modest!
@DickBarton, yes, those are all plausible explanations, given what we know of FC / FLS at times. I was just wondering what caused them to act, taking a big step back by destroying and removing trails. Seems odd. I dont know how long they were in existence for before the decision was taken to close. There must have been consultation at the concept/design/construction stage, wonder if there was any consultation at the time they were canned.
Furthermore, wonder if there has been any attempt to reinstate.
Word was that the head honcho of FCS at through in Aberdeen at the time was a bit of a twitcher and when they started felling there was no desire to reinstate the trails. I've absolutely no idea if this is true or not, just the local rumour.
It's really frustrating that they closed as there was a lot of local elbow grease put into them, especially the Mast Blast and Gullymonster. I also thought there would have been some sort of case to answer after the likes of Baxters put quite a bit of funding in. Hey ho...
@swavis thanks for that. I was under the impression at the time that the office in Huntly was pretty pro access and particularly pro mountain biking.
That's a point, Baxters had a hand in it at the start didnt they? Got some of the trails named after their soups!
I know all the DMBIMS and ATA work is amazing and they have great relationships with landowners and FLS. Wonder if there is a case for reinstating? If the trail surface is still there for the most part then some bridges and a good cut back of the vegetation might be what's needed?
That’s a point, Baxters had a hand in it at the start didnt they
They certainly did and we wondered why there wasn't more consultation with Moray MBC at the time. I think it was a case of "this is happening, tough luck!" Well it certainly felt like that looking in from just outside.
Think they wanted to concentrate on the trails at fochabers, there was some investment there after Ben Aigan closed.
There has been discussions regarding trail associations following the closure of the gully monster.
I recently explored the Gully Monster Trail fully expecting it to be completely trashed with trees down everywhere and washed out sections of trail. https://forestryandland.gov.scot/news-releases/gully-monster-mountain-bike-trail-closed
It seems, however to be in excellent condition, with only one section of it that I would classify as dangerous. 2 other sections seemed to be slightly worn to the point of being mildy hazardous, but not beyond the riding ability of anyone riding a black grade trail.
The trail seems to have had a lot of time and money spent on it, so I'm struggling to understand the cost-benefit analysis going on in the mind of the local FLS people. I'd be keen to see this trail reopened, its closure will no doubt discourage tourists from travelling to the area to visit (I was reluctant to visit Fochabers at all when I saw the above linked article).
If it isn't repaired soon, I expect that this trail will go the same way as the original Ae line trail has in the last few years... to the great hardpack dump in the sky.
Does anyone know if there are efforts to nudge the FLS into reopening it?
My guess would be that they didn't bring in enough visitors so couldn't justify continuing to pay for maintenance. Once the trails became affected by felling and washout from storms they had close to them on H&S grounds.
oh and capercaillies.
I think its unlikely they'll ever be redeveloped by the FC. They are too far from any large population centers to get enough visitors, Aberdeen is over and hour away and has much better riding in Deeside on its doorstep.
Woodwork is generally removed when it's either old and untrustworthy (doesn't mean unsafe, just means they can't rely on it remaining safe between inspections) or when the inspections are taking up FC time that they think's more useful elsewhere- they have a much higher standard and frequency of maintenance for obvious reasons. It's something that you also see in live trails- removing woodwork's been a bit of a goal in the stanes frinstance, we actually got as far as building a new section to near-completion before it turned out that they couldn't get approval for the fairly short bridge needed to access it. And lots of older sections have been extracted and- generally- replaced with dug routes. In theory we're allowed to replace each old woodwork feature with a new one but in practice the arguments against wood still apply to new stuff so we pretty much never do it.
It seems like in this case extracting the woodwork has basically killed the trail early?