Yup, great day out everyone! Loads of good chat, a great little route, nice weather and a café afterwards. Good to make a load of new people from around the area, chat about new route ideas, possible new adventures and races etc, and especially glad we all kept together as one big group.

I do believe someone threw down the gauntlet about doing a little ride called the ‘Ring of Alford’ in a single day. I mean, how hard can it be? 😀

ring of alford ….. that the one over suie onto gordon way to benachie , mither tap , pitfichie etc etc …… its a fierce ride on the legs – whats your version of it ?

The version I’ve heard of then heads over to Red Hill, then Benaquhallie from Pitfichie, then Craiglich, Pressendye, Scar Hill and then back to Suie via Coiliochaber and the Coreen Hills. Route choice seems to be the main issue: as the tops of the hills don’t all have established paths up to them, and linking the tops can then involve some pretty rough heather-bashing. Sounds like a challenge though!

thats different to the one ive done in the past -i just did the obvious trails round that sorta ring- that stings.

But im game for the full bhuna sometime.

Green hill (Correnie) which is east of Red Hill and Benaquuhallie has a continually developing amount of track on it (Strava Sections are a good to way to find them) and a climb up from tough can get you to the ‘col’ between redhill and greenhill. A short push up the heather would then lead you to the top of greenhill, once down some singetrack a short spin on the road could lead you to a track that climbs up between redhill and benaquhallie….Greenhill has the better tracks than any of the others and would be a valuable extension to the alford ring.

That sounds worth a little explore – I didn’t realise there was anything on Green Hill.

What’re you up to over the weekend Gavin? Might be worth an explore!

The network is ever expanding…..if a little bit unclear. The easiest way to the top is via the obvious track heading strait up the hill (which is also the best descent) when you go through the dyke. The stava section ‘secret in the woods’ is a little unclear but the sections known as singe track dscent part 1 and 2 are clearer.For exploring these sections parking at either 641081 644084 are probably best…..these don’t link in the Redhill and Benaqhuille sections but the view (if you get one ) from the top gives a good perspective over these hills….you can even see people on pitfichie if lucky!

If you want any more info on the trails I am happy to help!

Sunday might work for me – let me check later.

Top ride all. @notlocal it is a small world!

More about Gordon’s ‘Round of Alford’ route here:
http://www.northernlightweights.com/round-of-alford/

I think Gav may have shared all these by various means, but I put my photos from Sunday up here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cojacal/albums/

Be great to go out for another ride sometime ..

Cheers
C.