as you know i live in aberdeen – and i grew up in dundee

Aberdeen its self is a hole – i think we all agree on that , years of missmanagement and underinvestment by the ruling parties

Dundee has had the opposite and when i go back i always think how much it has improved over the years.

Aberdeenshire on the other hand is class.

We live 10 miles out on the city limits near beyond culter on a segregated cycle route into town.

We rarely turn left outside of travel to work – always right and head up the dee valley or over into donside.

trails are plentiful – i can ride quiet roads for 30 minutes and be at the foot of enduro trails (hill of fare) or drive for 20 and be at scolty or 45 mins and be at aboyne an hour and be at ballater , 1.5 hrs and be in the cairngorms for all the natural trails – not discounting – pitfichie , bennachie , millstone , Clachnabeinn and all the other hills in the region that have xc trails on – and once you work out the road system there are heaps of ace little roads to ride on the road bike avoiding the main roads – which are suicidal 99% of the time.

**** me is aberdeen a long way from anywhere. – but the journey has been significantly improved by average cameras on the main road to dundee.

i wouldn’t preferentially choose (again) or recommend to live in town.

As for o + g being cert based …. If you want to work for an operator perhaps – but you’ll get a job on the tools in the shop for a service company with a bit of aptitude and a track record of being a tool fitter and or mechanic (theres a reason i know that)

Disagree with Trail Rat Aberdeen is actually a good little city (village) to live in. Has theatres, art gallery, museums, lots for kids to do and good live music most days of the week. However it can’t compete with the likes of Glasgow & Edinburgh. What it does have which trumps the central belt is access to some great quiet countryside and the Cairngorms.

However if the opportunity arose I would happily move to Stirling/BOA or Inverness/Aviemore.

Surprisingly Aberdeen is quite cosmopolitan now. The old days of don’t serve me anything but stovies and butteries are long gone.

I’ve only ever been to Aberdeen on a few occasions, a few week long courses, but I really quite liked it. Weather was good on each occasion to be fair, which helped.

Love aberdeenshire… Not sure about the city itself, I havent spent much time there. Some really good riding spots as well as decent general lifestyle in the county. Always happy to visit when I get the chance.

Had the worst chicken pakora I’ve ever had in Aberdeen – would never go back

Best pakora I’ve had recently was in Green Gates in Stirling. Worst in the Indian street food place Union Square Aberdeen.

For a nice Indian meal in Aberdeen try Rishis in George Street.

union square.

thats a whole other topic.

Visually Aberdeen responds very well to the sun, it brings out a sparkle in the granite. On the other hand a grey day in Aberdeen is very grey; grey skies, grey buildings, grey roads, grey hearts.

Union Square is just a shopping centre like Silverburn etc, cookie cutter versions all over the UK.

Close @squirrelking but @Nobeerinthefridge takes the soggy cigar, my missus bought me an inflatable kayak for Chrimbo – it might get more use than I bargained at this rate

Few natural routes around but yeah Old Kilpatrick has a bit more to offer & is pretty close still – there’s potential in the area with being so rural (& hilly) but some of the natural paths are a bit of a slog (i’m looking at you Misty Law – makes 12 miles seem like 30) there’s some DH-ish tracks at Kelburne now I think but never been over to check them out, also keep meaning to head over to Dunoon for a day – time is at a premium now with a 3 year old so mostly stick to road these days…

J

Misty Law is great, think I sunk up to my knees last time I was up that way, in the middle of summer. It does rain a lot on the west coast.

Kelburn trails are a no-go these days. Landowners decided they didn’t want them in the end

aberdeenline
The old days of don’t serve me anything but stovies and butteries are long gone.

Puzzled.

Why would you want anything else? 🙂

On the other hand a grey day in Aberdeen is very grey; grey skies, grey buildings, grey roads, grey hearts.

Grey air. One of my abiding memories of visits to Aberdeen is that everyone smokes, all of the time. 

Balerno is perhaps the best place to live in Scotland, for a combination of quality of life, access to jobs and to the outdoors.

Unless you’re lucky enough that you can live somewhere like Gairloch of course!

Ex-Balerno, now Aviemore. Regrets? Not moving sooner (back to your comment about jobs).

Grey air. One of my abiding memories of visits to Aberdeen is that everyone smokes, all of the time.
Was that during the first oil boom in the 70s Scotroutes? Aye definitely not the good old days

Kelburn trails are a no-go these days. Landowners decided they didn’t want them in the end

Not quite true on both counts, they’re still there, just not actively being maintained any more as Nick the trailbuilder moved to Fife. If he hadn’t moved, they’d still be going, landowners never actually binned the trails.

They’re not the best trails in the area anyway, there’s better up on the moor, and kelburn can be tacked on at the end.

@Mashr, @mcj78, @squirrelking, let’s get a ride sorted soon.

Interesting, last thing I can remember seeing about them was a “stay away” type post from the guys on the old Facebook page (now deleted by the look of it?)

Sadly an increase in number of children means I don’t actually ride a bike. @philjunior seems to be alarmingly close to me too though

Sounds interesting, Fairlie moor? I go over there on the road bike every now & again and often wondered if theres any trails up there – was a guy new to the area asking about MTB trails on a local FB page & I messaged him about some of the stuff around the village, he sounded keen so might be another one interested!

Gimme a PM @mcj78, could meet at Dalry, then we can get the train, no driving needed.

Mashr, mon oot tae play. 😋

Always up for a ride if work allows, I’m on shifts anyway so no hassle figuring out in advance.

@mcj78 There’s a FB group doing occasional rides from Largs and Fairlie as well (North Ayrshire Mountain Biking). Last one was up and down Crosbie and Kaim Hills then down to Southannan Glen (I bailed on Kaim because I was freezing and didn’t have a jacket or dinner before I left)

Always love the excitement of whether I’ll get through Lochwinnoch or gamble on the Boag road.

Pakora’s? India Gate in Dunblane. Om nom nom.

I recall riding misty law once, was pretty good, many years ago, lovely views.

Pakora’s? India Gate in Dunblane. Om nom nom.

Can’t beat a cheese & tomato pizza and chips from Papas. Was never allowed to order so we used to hide in the rhododendron bushes at the school entrance and wait for the delivery van 😀

Ha, this thread made me laugh.

Everywhere has its pros and cons. Depends what sort of place you are used to living too I guess.

I’m from Edinburgh, it’s a much nicer place to.live than it was when I was growing up, loads of places to eat and drink, not all pretentious and expensive. Just avoid most places on George Street.

It often comes high lists of best cities to live in. The main downside is property is expensive, some of the cheaper commuter towns just outside the bypass are best avoided. But East Lothian is generally nice. North Berwick is popular but not much cheaper than Edinburgh.

I work with loads of guys mostly from the north east and they’re always go on about loving Edinburgh. And honestly August is my favourite time of year here. I don’t live or commute through the centre so that probably helps.

And like others said, Pentland hills for local trails in summer is good, bit boggy in winter bit it’s not too far to the tweed valley.

Talking of the tweed valley, the Borders are really nice, you could live somewhere along the Borders railway route so can commute easily to Edinburgh and be 15min from tweed valley trails.

Stirling looks like a wee Edinburgh, I get the feeling it’s a pretty quiet town. The countryside north from there is beautiful and loads of trails plus not far from Aviemore.

Stirling not far from Aviemore !! It’s nearer to Carlisle and it’s in England

I lived in Edinburgh for over 20 years and it’s great, but with it getting very run down, expensive and airbnbs taking over the place I’m not sure I’d live there again. The buses are great but the traffic is horrendous. It’s great having the Pentlands on your doorstep. Midlothian and East Lothian are really good.

Lived in Peebles for the best part of a year, it’s a nice town and probably great for raising a family but I didn’t really enjoy it. I feel the locals are pretty sick of mountain bikers and to a degree the bikers themselves are kind of a phoney rab jacket/VW van veneer on the top thinking they own the place. There’s not really any good pubs and the commute to Edinburgh really was a chore especially in winter. So much of your day spent sitting in a metal box and ironically it meant there wasn’t really any more time to ride in the evening than when I just lived in Edinburgh. And I’ve never lived anywhere with so much dog mess everywhere.

Originally from north of Inverness and don’t have much bad to say about that part of the world! Inverness itself isn’t what it used to be and the hospital is struggling but some of the villages outside are great. Winter is long and dark but the summer is remarkably dry and it’s still light out when you go to bed. Having the proper Highlands in reach is superb.

Dunfermline? Fife life! Half hour to Edinburgh or Perth, an hour to Glasgow and Dundee. In terms of biking just over an hour to the Tweed Valley, 2 and a bit to Aviemore, Dunkeld 45 minutes. Some ok stuff locally at Blairadam and Benarty Hill, also the Lomond Hills and Pitmedden is good too, half hour away. The road riding is very good as well, some nice runs up over Knockhill and Glendevon.

The town itself is expanding quickly, presumably to cater for folk who can’t afford to buy in Edinburgh, although it’s a small town centre. Nice new library and good park and there’s plenty for kids to do in terms of variety of clubs/sport. East neuk is nice for a day out.

My wife secured a job in Inverness yesterday. We are in the process of buying a house within commuting distance of there anyway and thought we would have another 18 months waiting to move into it (my job comes with accommodation so we had this luxury) so this is a bit of a bolt from the blue. Good news is I have an interview on Wednesday and we are travelling together up for her to iron out terms and conditions (and actually meet them, all been via video conference so far!) and me to do the interview. The big issue is the interview on Wednesday is for literally the only job within 150 miles I am qualified to do. If I bollox it up I might be riding my bike a lot but which sounds great but is not sustainable.The pressure is massively on – which is why I am on here procrastinating rather than sorting out my presentation.

Update – quite a 48hrs in the Convert household. I was offered the job I was going for; accepted and resigned my current role this afternoon. Mrs C negotiated her role and accepted and resigned too. What is the chance of a couple moving 600 miles and getting a really good job each in the same week, with the house you were buying already exactly half way between the two? She is starting beginning of June and I’m following 6 weeks later. So it’s off to Nairnshire for us. It’s all become very real all of a sudden!

Watch out for the ‘what car/pickup for 4 season back country highland commuting with a bike in the back?’ thread coming your way very soon.

Welcome to the Highlands.

Soon remote will mean Edinburgh… 🙂

**** ace!

Welcome to mountain bike heaven. So much riding in all directions. Don’t know the stuff out forres and Elgin way so well but loads of local spots to enjoy. Not far from Inverness where you could ride forever and never get bored. Trails there are on another level. And plenty more spots further north.
The choices are endless

Amazing!

Great news, well played convert_household.

Now, about that ‘rent a room at weekends to stw’ers’ you mentioned a few pages back 😉

Cool! Hope the move goes well.

As above! great stuff, along the road in Elgin. Plenty of tracks and trails to keep you happy – shout up when you get the move sorted!

Welcome to the best wee country in the world..

On top of everything else spoken about in his thread, we’ve finally got a ski season kicking off now too. My morning commute by fatty into Dundee was over some very snowy Sidlaws this morning. Happy days..

Stirling not far from Aviemore !! It’s nearer to Carlisle and it’s in England

By 1.3 miles…

Watch out for the ‘what car/pickup for 4 season back country highland commuting with a bike in the back?’ thread coming your way very soon.

Aberdeenshire – but you can get by fine in a Civic. Just look for the winter tyres threads that pop up every October.
Winter Commute