What's Open At Glentress? A Redevelopment Update

Can anyone clarify if Blue Velvet is affected? Article doesn't mention it, but Trailforks shows it within a big red-highlighted area for "Forest Works 2023".

Still frustrating that out of the whole forest they're using the Buzzards Nest area for redevelopment. What a loss.

Can anyone clarify if Blue Velvet is affected? Article doesn’t mention it, but Trailforks shows it within a big red-highlighted area for “Forest Works 2023”.

I've been riding GT most weeks for the past couple of months and Blue Velvet is closed for felling. Not sure if the felling is related to the new lodges, but it's definitely closed

Thanks. I realised after posting earlier there was more info on Trailforks advising closed due to forestry works from 29th January, so not directly related to the redevelopment.

Is this the master plan that keeps getting tweaked with less and less being done? (Or is the plan to still have all the trails and developments but they are just doing them all in bits?)

plan

Is the keyword.
And no plan survives for long...

Finally some clarity! Thanks Hannah!

I've had some direct info from various people at FLS- Blue Velvet is to get a new exit but will remain, as will berm baby berm...

Martin Page confirmed: ‘The XC race routes will be using approximately 80% of the existing trails and those being developed as part of the masterplan, with the remainder being removed as they are not compatible with the site’s legacy configuration

Eirher thats a bloody long XC course or Martin really needs to work on his English...

Out of interest, how many millions is this 12km of additional mtb trail costing?
I guess it'll look like a bargain compared to the last "upgrade "

Out of interest, how many millions is this 12km of additional mtb trail costing?

From what I've seen the trails look great, but the massive culvert/vanity hole in what was a flat hillside looks to have been a colossal amount of work for a trail crossing and wont have come cheap

Glentress is right at the top of my 'to-do' list.

I've never been, and I really want to... should any of this be putting me off spending a weekend up there?

Absolutely not, but its well worth exploring outside the trail centre routes.

DM if you want any route ideas

I’ve never been, and I really want to… should any of this be putting me off spending a weekend up there?

Nope, and loads of 'unsanctioned' trails there too - Trailforks

This adds a climb at the start and removes a small amount of fun stuff, but there is a vast network of trails and unofficial trails still there to be explored...so absolutely go.

Definitely go but for the love of god dont do the black. Its awful. The black is a great way upto the top to do the off piste stuff but thats it

The black lost a lot of its edge when my ability and my bikes ability rose.

The loss of the Buzzards Nest is a massive shame in my opinion. We normally go away with a few other families for a couple of biking weekends a year. The kids range from 5-12 and the option of shuttling them up to the BN for a bit of climbing then straight into the good stuff was excellent. As it stands we’ve cancelled our GT family trips to head elsewhere now.

I think I'm the only person in the world that likes the black. Ah well.

Going up there in April, taking grav and MTB. Looking forward to having an explore

I think I’m the only person in the world that likes the black. Ah well

Nope. I rode it today and I enjoyed it. Been a while since I last did it and while it's maybe old skool in some ways it's still a good ride. I particularly liked the use of Mild Peril for the diversion to deliverance. That's such a fun track.

Poor black always suffers as there isn’t really one stand out feature. No big jumps or slabs or chutes. Taken as a journey rather multiple sets of sections and it makes much more sense.
It’s especially awesome on an ebike. So much fun carrying speed up Soor Plooms.

Black route fan here as well!
However, the post Storm Arwen black is a poor relation and the attraction of a 17 mile mostly singletrack loop has been lost in my opinion, if they want to keep attracting bikers to help pay for this master plan they can't rely on a few kms of new trail tagged on at the end.
The unanswered question from FCS is whether or not the black will ever be brought back. Seeing the state of deliverance I have my doubts but 15 months later they should be able to confirm what the long-term plans is.

I like the black too. Just a good old xc loop. Did two laps once, training for strathpuffer - definitely felt that. Did it for the first time in ages this year. Shame there were quite a few diversions in place. I hope it reopens fully. Not sure this master plan is going to make anything better, but the extra trails might be good for the family.

There's been a couple of off piste bits "re-opened".

Hush Hush is accessible again, although I suspect it's very unofficial. Do the boundary trail to where HH used to start. Marvel at the catastrophic storm damage, then go a bit further up the trail and you'll see the new entrance. Word of warning, it's VERY off piste. By that I mean there's been no building as such, just tyres down the hill. The start is a very long straight steep muddy rut which eventually turns right then joins into HH.

Brown Trout is also accessible again. From the point where you used to cut off from the fire road, the new entrance is maybe 10 metres to the right. Again, no building as such, but it's not steep so it's less sketchy. Few wiggly turns through the trees then it joins Brown Trout after the storm damaged area.

clubby Full Member
Poor black always suffers as there isn’t really one stand out feature. No big jumps or slabs or chutes.

Well there used to be the Stone Chute on the Goat Track but everyone rode around it and it got grown over.

adam5555 Full Member
Black route fan here as well!
However, the post Storm Arwen black is a poor relation and the attraction of a 17 mile mostly singletrack loop has been lost in my opinion, if they want to keep attracting bikers to help pay for this master plan they can’t rely on a few kms of new trail tagged on at the end.

The FC rangers I talked to used to say that it was hard to justify spending much on the black because far, far fewer riders rode it compared to the red and the blue. I can't imagine that maintenance budget funds have been any easier to come by in recent years. 🙁

BoardinBob Full Member
...
Hush Hush
...
Brown Trout

(Grinds teeth) Surely you mean The Glorious Five Year Plan and Broon Troot? 😉

The FC rangers I talked to used to say that it was hard to justify spending much on the black because far, far fewer riders rode it compared to the red and the blue. I can’t imagine that maintenance budget funds have been any easier to come by in recent years. 🙁

Dunno, I did the whole of GT and Inners over a weekend ~2012ish, just after a load of money had been spent so everything was fast, smooth, stereotypical trail center stuff, and it was awesome. Last time I went a couple of years back the red had eroded so it just felt like you were continuously getting beaten up for little reward. But that's equally applicable to most trail centers, as the average bike has moved from a 120mm hardtail to a 140mm full-suss there's probably a lot less need to maintain trails to the same (expensive) standard in order to still attract riders.

Buzzards and the freeride get a reprieve till 3rd April

"The start of the Forest Holidays development has been delayed from 1 March to 3 April due to additional wildlife monitoring work needed. "

Interesting! I wonder what they found? Plenty of Red Squirrels around that area, would they still be hibernating?

For a UK trail the black still has a more-than-adequate singletrack to fireroad ratio. I mean compared to some of the terrible stuff out there that gets ridden all the time its fantastic.

I think it suffers from simply being hard work relatively speaking now everyone is forgetting what putting mileage effort in feels like. That said I cheated yesterday and rode it on an eBike so I can't say Im bucking the trend either.

I quite like the new deliverance bypass - totally different and yes it has fire road to cover the distance, but the descent down Mild Peril to the valley floor is worth it.

Is there any chance that the upper level Green Trail will be reopened? While devoid of any TTFs it flowed very well and was a great stress free ride.

Is there any chance that the upper level Green Trail will be reopened

Zero. It was absolutely destroyed by the storm. I doubt they could ever safely remove the fallen trees

Which is gutting as it’s long been a plan to get the nippers there as an introduction to GT

For somebody who's not been to Glentress for a dozen years (maybe a tad more), had a 120mm travel Stumpy FSR at the time (26" wheels obvs 🙂) and isn't scared of pedalling vut is scared of 15ft gap jumps (I liked the black back then as a nicer length ride rather than quick blast 10kms) what do I have in store ? (I'm on a 140mm travel Five these days, 27.5" wheels). But obvs older and creakier

I always liked a hybrid route of black and red with a spin back up to the buzzards nest to then ride blue back to the finish. If I had the legs and the time then I'd add in some off piste stuff close to the buzzards nest carpark.

I've done a double lap of the black a couple of times, it's a tough going xc route but I was always a fan. It feels pretty remote in some places.

The whole management of Glentress just seems to be two steps forward and one back. Shame really.

Zero. It was absolutely destroyed by the storm. I doubt they could ever safely remove the fallen trees

That's what I assumed as well, but it is planned to reopen. There are delays due to harvester availability.

The whole management of Glentress just seems to be two steps forward and one back. Shame really.

It seems to me that Glentress is suffering from resources being directed to the shiny big projects to the detriment of maintenance funds.

Its sad that there appears to be no money to fix the existing trail network, but enough in the pot to fund headline grabbing new projects.

I enjoy the black, it’s more about fitness than skill but makes a good training route

Was planning to ride it for the first time in years next month but sounds like a lot of it is shut

I doubt they could ever safely remove the fallen trees

Aye they could, windblown is tricky but not impossible.

I always appreciated the wee faded pic of Britney at the top of the black, it got me singing from there on it.

Goat track was always good

Rode the Red and the Black in a day in '21. I thought both were very good; the best on piste trails I'd ridden and a massive improvement over the bore-fest that is the Beast at CYB.

From what I know, the remaining wind blow areas are in the hands of the foresters.
The easy to clear sections have all been done, but the larger areas are now waiting for them to be planned in to the wider felling plans, which are done on a more commercial basis. It'll likely take years for everything to be cleared, as the wind blow is only likely to be removed when nearby good timber is harvested.

It seems to me that Glentress is suffering from resources being directed to the shiny big projects to the detriment of maintenance funds.

Its sad that there appears to be no money to fix the existing trail network, but enough in the pot to fund headline grabbing new projects.

It's all to do with funding.
It's easier to get funding/grants for shiny new exciting things, than it is to get funds for boring old maintenance.

It’s all to do with funding.
It’s easier to get funding/grants for shiny new exciting things, than it is to get funds for boring old maintenance.

Makes sense. Was there today. By and large it looks fairly abandoned with many of what's not already been removed man made features looking like they are not long for this world.

Wooden features significantly increase the inspection requirements on the trails they're on in order to meet FLS's duty of care. Therefore they fell out of favour a few years ago, when hard choices had to be made based on how much time rangers had to carry out trail inspections and maintenance. Some vital and/or iconic bits survived but alternative solutions were sought where they'd been used to go over bits of ground that were marginally tricky to build trails into.

I like the black too! It's barely black but it's still a lovely ride. Same as Afan, it's been left behind and a bit forgotten but that's made it into something different rather than something worse. IMO.

TBH, overall Glentress is a better place to ride than it was 10 years ago. People talk about it being in decline and in some ways, that's definitely true but the offpistes and #enduro stuff have massively enhanced it. Instead of giving a bags of cash to On Track, they should just have given a load of crates of beer to those guys and we'd have brilliant new stuff everywhere.

mtnboarder
Full Member

Interesting! I wonder what they found? Plenty of Red Squirrels around that area, would they still be hibernating?

Maybe the same local builders have diversified into spreading out rare newts or slow worms or puffins or something in the freeride.

ChrisL
Full Member

Wooden features significantly increase the inspection requirements on the trails they’re on in order to meet FLS’s duty of care.

Yep, as nicely demonstrated by the big wallride immediately falling apart when it mysteriously got reopened the other day. And the speed at which the wood features in the skills area went from open as usual to completely collapsed. I know people get cynical about wood features being removed but that really shows how quickly they can go off, and how they can seem fine til they're absolutely not. Now it looks like a hundred year old pier.

tartanscarf
Full Member

The loss of the Buzzards Nest is a massive shame in my opinion.

For sure... It'd just naturally formed a centre, a "hub" you might say, over the years that I don't think was ever planned but became such an asset, you can build endless loops from there. Even for a totally trailcentre rider, doing the red and then realising you have some leg left and doing laps of the nearby trails was superb, I always started new riders or visits to the centre there. With the best of intent I don't think the new developments replace that at all; if they deliver, then it should be much more coherent and sensible with the skills area etc being actually at the start/end, and near the cafe, and near the ambulances and all that good stuff- but it's a long way from spooky or the mast or the bottom of deliverance.

Still feels like the chalets could have gone damn nearly anywhere in the forest, but the middle of the trails can only go in the middle.

BoardinBob
Full Member

Zero. It was absolutely destroyed by the storm. I doubt they could ever safely remove the fallen trees

Not manually, anyway- they'll probably send a harvester in some time to the really flattened areas, when the moons align and there's enough work to do to justify sending in a quarter of a million quid's worth of machinery to do it, but the yields from windblow are poor and there's no shortage of ripe timber to fell. So that could be years- and for the green at least it'll likely have one eye on the cabin project too.

For machine built trail of that nature it's definitely going to be easier to smash in some new stuff. And move it to teh bottom of the hill, while they're at it. But it's a shame.