Glentress cafe up for lease

The majority of people riding at Inners aren’t doing the Red loop.

A spanking big toilet and shower block…that shuts at 5pm all year round (and doesn’t open until 9am). Night ride?

Are you George Michael?

But seriously this is such a petty thing to have a go at the FC for, seems perfectly sensible if they want to ensure they say clean and in decent working order. How many night riders are there who can’t have dump before arriving and nip home for a shower afterwards? I doubt people travel many miles for a night ride at Glentress.

The post-ride spread that the pub in Backup, across from Lee Quary, put on for us for us in their beer garden recently was exquisite. All organic and locally sourced too. The prawns were even caught in the river Irwell we were informed. Though one of our party suspected the Quinoa was from Chilli, though more than likely still Fairtrade, so we decided not to complain in the extensive internet review we wrote afterwards. We did complain about other issues, but this was mainly regarding the coarse language of the unsavoury looking regulars in the saloon bar, which could still be heard above the string quartet

I’m impressed by how you can make every conflict into the class war Binners !! That shows proper dedication to the cause, comrade.

😀

The prawns were even caught in the river Irwell we were informed. Though one of our party suspected the Quinoa was from Chilli [Chile?]

Prawn and quinoa pastie?

But seriously this is such a petty thing to have a go at the FC for, seems perfectly sensible if they want to ensure they say clean and in decent working order. How many night riders are there who can’t have dump before arriving and nip home for a shower afterwards? I doubt people travel many miles for a night ride at Glentress.

I’ve used the showers a number of times in recent weeks and the actual changing area has been absolutely filthy. People getting changed out of dirty clothes which drops mud all over the floor, and it never seems to get cleaned at all during the day. Even a brush left in the room to allow us to sweep up afterwards would be progress.

Compare them to the toilets at Tweed Green for example. The doors are on some time lock system so they open very early AM then lock around 11pm. They’re always spotlessly clean first thing in the morning. I know this for a fact because I’ll often park my camper in the Tweed Green car park, and be up and using the toilets circa 6am and they’ve been spotlessly cleaned minutes earlier, and are spotless any time I’ve used them.

Then you have the GT toilets with limited opening hours, a cursory clean at the end of the night then left to get filthy during the day. It might seem like a petty gripe, but it’s more of an indication of how little effort or thought the FC put in. I didn’t realise forests were only open 9-5.

Funnily enough I made quinoa and chorizo stew last night, using the last of the quinoa I found at the back of the cupboard- we bought it from a market in Peru on our honeymoon, most middle class stwer of the day!!
(dont worry my scouse mother in law is down today so i suspect dinner tea will be along the lines of mince and spuds and overcooked veggies)

Im back at glentress for the enduro over easter so I may actually try a toastie!

do they still have a remit or legal obligation to provide leisure services and facilities?

not quite as such, if you go to the FC website it explains what they do, though I can’t find the nice paragraph that explains it I’m sure I found before, but in a hastily written unresearched nutshell they have a duty to allow recreation access where it doesn’t interfere with the operation of the commercial forest, but they encourage and develop leisure uses of the forest through the strategies of the different devolved FC bodies.

Also they need the forest estate to largely fund itself as per http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/webnewsreleases/fbdab664db1764fa80257b50003ad82a . I can imagine that visiting mountain bikers who begrudgingly pay a few quid to park and maybe pass on a couple of quid back to the FC through the cafe are probably not viewed as a great source of income, things like families and overnight visitors are what they would be wanting, probably why the masterplan has a focus on holiday accomodation.

FC are basically financially screwed from devolution and budget cuts as far as I can see. I’ll be surprised if there is any progressive mtb development in the next few years.

Not been in the café since the old one shut. When we are up there we tend to stay at the Tontine and ride up from the town and so miss it.

Will be up with the camper for the Enduro at Easter so will be self sufficient. I was going to spend some time in their as I have to have another foot operation the day before so will be sporting a pot for six weeks. If its that bad I may take a load of books and stay in the van.

As I understand it, the current master plan by the FC is to flatten the free ride area, build 60 odd forest lodges in that area for holiday makers and then ‘recreate’ the free ride area at the peel at the bottom of the hill. To my mind this is a sticking plaster over the problem and given that I highly doubt a fully FC controlled free ride area will stand up to what is at the buzzards nest currently I can’t see it being as popular, I hope I’m wrong.

As a minor point of order, the Glentress FCS Rec team seem very committed to having the new freeride trails up and running before the existing ones (which are surely also fully FC controlled?) up and running.

FC are basically financially screwed from devolution and budget cuts as far as I can see. I’ll be surprised if there is any progressive mtb development in the next few years.

I gather that wood prices aren’t really helping them out at the moment, either.

Personally I find the Peel acceptable. It was better when it sold lasagne. 🙂 The Hub’s food was on average acceptable too, perhaps a bit more variable in quality and back before all the fuss about the Peel turned everyone into die-hard Hub fans it received quite a lot of stick for its pricing too.

It might seem like a petty gripe, but it’s more of an indication of how little effort or thought the FC put in. I didn’t realise forests were only open 9-5.

Yep very petty! It won’t be down to effort or thought, but if you can find a way to pay someone to work to your desired cottaging hours they might be all ears.

The forests are open 24 hours, just because you can’t have a pee or whatever in a toilet doesn’t mean you can’t ride. The toilets aren’t 24 hours for obvious reasons.

Personally I find the Peel acceptable.

I think thats the issue
and the hub was bit pricey, food was variable but considering it was a run down shack/portacabin they did very well

the Peel Centre cost £8.5 million and the service it delivers isnt really much better, apart from having more seats

meanwhile at the Peel Centre.

Ah, I believe that’s known as a braveheart salad.

Given that you’ve all stopped at the motorway services to get to Glentress, I’d have thought the Peel seem similarly welcoming.

Which Motorway to GT??

much to binners horror Ill only stop at Tebay for my quails eggs on brioche

the peel centre suffers greatly in comparison

It won’t be down to effort or thought, but if you can find a way to pay someone to work to your desired cottaging hours they might be all ears.

Again with the gay jibes. Have you got something you want to get off your chest?

The motorway services on the way to GT are the best in the known universe though. Whenever we’re heading north we just stop and stock up on growlers. Job jobbed….

Pastries with actual meat in the Binners, your delicate Greggs stomach won’t know what’s going on!!

stock up on growlers

😯
I don’t know what to say. How would you stock up on such a thing?

I often suffer from gout on my return south of the border, but its worth it 😀

i stopped here on the way to afan on sunday

http://www.gloucesterservices.com/

very much like tebay, is it the same owners?

Lorraine Kelly’s growler? 😯 do you mind binners, its my lunchtime here!

Boardinbob they have to do that for a number of reasons – vandalism and maybe risk it may go onto some sort of meet up place for certain outdoor/adventurous.. types with no worries of being spotted by the general public. Growing up in Huddersfield my local officer told me (pre-internet days) there used to be a book available detailing places people could meet up to cuddle each other..

Pretty much same if you go to Hope in the Peak- public toilets are locked between certain times sadly so it means doing a hot toe dance trying to keep the load in waiting..

I’ll never go back to CYB- the cafe there scarred me for life. Llandegla has smiles, good service and good food.

As for avoiding paying carpark charges. Have a word with yourself. Seriously.

Always stop off on the A66 on the way up, cant think of a better way than a full English to start the day.

http://www.mainsgillfarm.co.uk/Visit/Tea-Room

There you go car park charge avoiders. You’re being (rightly) accused of being a tight arse by the man who’s been known to feign a heart attack, including the use of a defribulator, to avoid buying a round.

Think on….

If the cafe was decent people wouldnt begrudge the parking fee

Has anyone ever seen binners and hora at the same time?. 😆

Only in the toilets at Glentress after dark

If the cafe was decent people wouldnt begrudge the parking fee

Not always the case. At Glyncorrwyg the cafe is run by Skyline; really nice helpful people, I have never had a bad experience in their shop and they have gone beyond what’s reasonable for me and a couple of friends.
The car park is owned and operated by the glyncorrwyg ponds co-operative, who contribute the sum total of nothing (in time or money) to the trails at all.
I don’t mind paying to contribute to what I use, no reasonable person could but GC is a different case.

very much like tebay, is it the same owners?

Yeah, but it felt like the prices were all higher at the Gloucester one.

And I couldn’t find the pie counter.

Just the once….

Which makes my point even more focused and right. They are providing riders with a place to park the car, use of a toilet and they maintain the trails that that we all ride yet some say ‘£4 to park, sod that I’ll park outside and ride in thus being a parasite’. In addition visitor figures (and future funding) may be dependent on carpark receipts. Or how it affects funding or decisions.

Whats right about that?

Whenever I’ve used a trail centre I’ve paid parking and used the centre cafe. It helps everyone.

I miss you binners. Its not the same chasing round a row of scantily-clad nurses around a park at a comedy speed 🙁

Has anyone ever seen binners and hora at the same time?.

Binners was operating the defibrillator – also to avoid buying a round.

If the cafe was decent people wouldnt begrudge the parking fee

Sorry… I don’t see the connection. Whats the quality of toasties in the cafe got to do with effectively bunging in a couple of quid to ride the trails.?

Tight-arse! 😛

+1 binners.

😆

If the cafe was decent people wouldn’t begrudge the parking fee

Huh? The parking fee goes towards the running of the FC. Surely the decision is, is this forest worth me cycling in enough for me to cough up £3 for the parking (or whatever it costs).

You’d better not visit other FC places where there is a parking fee and little past a few rotting way markers.

There seems to be some doubt that the fees ever reach the forest trails once the cost of engaging the car park attendants has been covered. (but I’m in agreement with your sentiment).

From all these ramblings, it looks to me like you’re more interested in the food than the riding (or maybe I’ve missed the 200 threads on that, dunno)

I went to Dalby last year on the CX’er, nice place, had a cafe’, I ate a sarnie and drank coffee.. can’t remember what the car park charge was but I paid it and rode the trails.

What is it you actually want out of the cafe’?

In all reality it’s business model is based on a small number of MTB’ers turning up in inconsistent numbers on random days with wildly varied appetite for nosh n coffee, and whose clientele bemoans car park fees and expects seemingly Michelin Star Burgers and Coffee variants in a myriad of flavours. .

I’d never tell you what to do, but if you don’t like the food, don’t eat it and if you don’t like car park charges, don’t park there.