[Closed] Where to live for bikes & horses? (just east of Stirling content)

If you want a house in a rougher area with quite a few numpties around, then most places east of Stirling will suit you and it's cheep. You better have a good lock on your shed though.
The decent places in Stirling are a bit more expensive and probably worth it considering everything will be within a 15 min walk. Kings Park, Causway Head, River Side and maybe Torbrex are you're best bets within that area.
The villages west of Stirling are expensive but arguably the most beautiful, peaceful and possibly have a better feeling of community.

Access to great mtbing and road riding in any of these areas is superb.

You would probably be best asking over on the trailscotland forum - http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums

Loads of Stirling locals on there

Falkirk area - (stop s****ing at the back!) we ride on the Callendar Estate trails [url= http://www.callendarestate.co.uk/things-to-do-in-falkirk/cycling-routes ]Callendar Est[/url] every week and we're central for other more extreme MTB venues. There's plenty of horse riding in the area too judging by the amount of ordure on the trails 😯
Plenty of road riding to be had too.

East of Stirling I'd only consider Tillicoultry or Dollar or somewhere outwith the towns/villages but maybe pushing your 20min limit. I take it BofA is outside your budget, if not just stay there as it's nicest. :-)Dollar second nicest.

Like anywhere, there are good bits and bad bits, but Alva, Alloa, Tullibody, Menstrie aren't great IMO. Cowie, Fallin, Plean, etc are even worse

see [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/moving-to-stirling-area-any-places-to-avoid ]here[/url] for some views:

personally i'd stay this side of the forth for a slightly easier commute, the kicardine bridge is ok but can get busy.

IMO the nicer bits of alloa / alva / menstrie are just as nice as tillicoultry if dollar is outside your budget. bridge of allan is nice too and there are some more affordable bits in the area.

Cheers

IMO the nicer bits of alloa / alva / menstrie are just as nice as tillicoultry if dollar is outside your budget.

I wouldn't disagree with that, but Alva high street is grim. Menstie is not too bad I suppose, but has nothing in it. Alloa does have nice bits, but the town centre is a full of people driving around in Corsas with huge exhausts.

I'm a bit of a snob though. YMMV 😛

Indeed, alloa high street has its characters, but I tend to filter them out unless they are so loud you can't do that - the loud exhausts might be the folk driving through quickly so they dont get weirdos wandering out in front of them 🙂

The alloa high street does have a bit of bustle about it despite the small %age of bams. I get what you mean about alva and menstrie though, they aren't really a destination (not that alloa is a buzzing metropolis but I think i know what you mean)

as always OP i'd come up for a visit if you are planning to move to the area, glasgow isn't far. You could get the train through and if you dont like what you see, the return train will head back within the hour 🙂

Dollar isn't all expensive - only if you want a four bedroomed stone built house on the high street. There are affordable houses too, some great ex local authority houses to rent at reasonable rates. It's a nice enough village, good pub, take aways, coop, deli etc, probably not as lively as Bridge of Allan. Has a squash club, tennis courts, golf course.

Good biking access, using the railway line to Tilli and up Silver Glen into the Ochils for some cracking days out, past the castle and up into Glen Quay, or paths along the river and into Muckhart for a more gentle pootle. Not sure abut the horse riding.

BUT a faction of the village residents are 'all about' the school. A lot of the social stuff rotates around the school and there is a higher than average blonde perma-tan female contingent. I live just outside the village and this does not affect / worry me at all, but then I'm fairly unsociable anyway 🙂

EDIT: Dollar is really too far away to make riding into Stirling for an MTB ride feasible. Stirling itself has some great trails - Uni and Mine woods, Dumyat and a whole load to explore on the south side with Cambu woods and N3. If you want all that on your doorstep then stay in Stirling and accept the longer commute to Kincardine. I have lived in both and rode more (with more riding buddies) when I lived in Stirling.

higher than average blonde perma-tan female contingent

*plans a route through dollar on the next sunny day ;)*

or are we talking

[img] [/img]

more than

[img] [/img]

🙂 Certainly more top from a distance. I don't get too close... they scare me (and they hunt in packs)!!

Guess I mean a bunch of private school mums who don't talk to you if they realise that you work, or don't have kids, or like getting all dirty and sweaty in the hills 8)

I once went to a party with a load of the school crowd, the women wouldn't talk to me and I was relegated to the garden with the guys. I had quite a cool time talking to the guy who is building the new Forth road bridge - so not all bad I guess.

Cheers for the input everyone. We don't need somewhere super-posh but would prefer to avoid the neds, so this is useful background 🙂

We'll be spending quite a bit of time up there in the next few weeks as we try to get a feel for where would be nice. I'm guessing anywhere along the hillfoots road will have decent access to mtb trails. Will check out links above.

Any particularly horse-y places up there?

Cheers!

B

[url= http://devonriverridingcentre.co.uk ]Horses and that[/url]

Cambusbarron ticks all your boxes and you have superb trails on the doorstep

[url= http://www.dollar-equestrian.com ]More horses[/url]

Also a fair few private yards / stables all along the hillfoots. Is strange but I am out with the dogs regularly, and on the bike every weekend, but rarely see anyone riding (horses)...