A day at Drumlanrig – what is the best stuff to ride?

Am up in Scotland for a corporate event next Friday (MTBing!) so am taking my bike and staying up to ride Saturday with a colleague. We’re staying here http://www.trigonyhotel.co.uk/%5B/url%5D and have a small van at our disposal, so where are the best trails for a couple of knarly, enduro-tastic riders to do with a full day to kill :lol:?

Drumlanrig itself looks pretty good with a Red/Black 28km route would could do in the morning maybe, and then head across to AE or somewhere for the afternoon?

Any input welcome.

Thanks

I’d pitch Drumlanrig as a natural feeling XC type of place. The red and black classifications are more to do with distance and a couple of sweaty climbs on the black rather than anything technical. Still very enjoyable and I really like it but if its gnar and enduro your after I’d maybe stick with Ae.

Again I really like Ae but if you read the latest thread then opinions are divided, if you’re a trail centre fan than I think its worthwhile.

What I would say that is if you have a bike that will let you enjoy Ae then it will pretty much neutralise Drumlanrig and vice versa. So I’d pick one or the other. Also I you wouldn’t be too far from Mabie and Dalbeattie so I wouldn’t discount them either.

Drum’s black is pretty hard in places, for a uk trail centre… But it’s not #enduro, it’s possibly xxxxc or some such. Good though. I wouldn’t go as far as Yokaiser, a big bike wouldn’t be my choice for drum but it won’t neutralise it or make it pointless.

You could head up to Ae and explore the offpiste and dh, it’s kind of a warren of options but the UKGE is there this weekend I think so it might be easy to follow the tyre marks. Basically just go up the uplift road to the top and then follow your nose. To be fair I’ve never ridden this stuff without race tape so it might be that you’ll end up hopelessly lost or not able to find any good bits, who knows. But if you find even a couple of lines you like you’ll have had a better day out than you would on the red

Could go for a natural ride 💡
http://www.sharemyroutes.com/routes/United-Kingdom/Carronbridge-Dumfries-and-Galloway-Scotland/Wanlockhead-Gold-Rush-18052010/elevationOSmap.aspx

http://s95.photobucket.com/user/bigjohnskona/slideshow/Polybikers%20Sanquhar%201012

Enduro @ Ae this weekend;
http://www.moredirt.com/event/948

I really enjoyed drumlanrig, I would say that the black was accurate enough though, it’s definitely harder than the red, and the red was more technical that a lot of other reds I’ve ridden.

I quite enjoyed ae last year, but i found it rough and a bit of a slog. I was on a heavy cheap hard tail though, so on a decent bike I reckon it’d be ok enough. I’ve not been back this year, but maybe would next time.

I really like mabie too, it’s a bit easier to keep your speed your speed up than Dalbeattie, with a couple of nice descents and the skills area is nice if you’ve got a bit of time to kill. That said, the taster loop at Dalbeattie was good, I didn’t have time to ride the whole thing, but all of the taster loop was fun, should’ve just ridden that twice 😛

Thanks guys,

I’ll be on my Bronson and my mate on his Canyon Strive CF Race shapeshifter thingy so they both pedal/climb well but are always more fun on the downs.

I am erring towards spending the day at Ae as we’re riding around the Drumlanrig estate on the Friday so I think we may take in some of the trails whilst doing it.

Cheers

a lot of chat about Ae on this thread, incase you havent seen it.

My own view is that Drumlanrig is the most fun of the trails in that area, so hope you manage to get round some of it

Quick update for anyone interested! Had and amazing day on Friday doing the event – 45kms or so around Drumlanrig having to find 29 checkpoints, half of which had challenges such as Highland games, body boarding through some Rapids, a river crossing (Christ that was cold!) Orienteering on foot, a short fell run etc etc. Teams of three and we lost a member two months ago due to injury and his stand-in wasn’t very fit, so the other guy and I used the opportunity to ride some trails and have fun as we were never going to win! Did a lot of Red 7 and a good chunk of the black which was all good fun. We then decided to make the most of the sunshine and drive up to Glentress the next morning where we did two laps of the red and had a play in the bike park.

Stunning scenery on the drive across on amazing roads (fun even in a hire van) and then a great days riding at Glentress. We headed off to do the black but got chatting to a local on the way up who reckoned two laps of the red would be more fun for our first time.

Fell totally in love with Scotland and can’t wait to head back, hopefully sooner than this time next year when we’ll be back with a full strength team hopefully!

Lucky people if you live in the midst of all of that although I suspect the blue skies and sunshine made it slightly more welcoming..

Thanks for all the advice.

Oh so you did the Buccleuch Challenge then. I did it in 2008 and the River Nith was bloody freezing then too! I work for Buccleuch but in England

Glad you enjoyed it! Glentress is fantastic, oodles of fun.

tuffty – Member
Oh so you did the Buccleuch Challenge then. I did it in 2008 and the River Nith was bloody freezing then too! I work for Buccleuch but in England

Yes I did – first time and loved it so we’ll be back!

YoKaiser – Member
Glad you enjoyed it! Glentress is fantastic, oodles of fun.

Yes it was a lot of fun although I’ve since been told that there is a lot of off piste stuff which is much better if you know where to look?