Myself and sweajnr (9) are planning on visiting my parents in the summer from Canada. They’ve moved from down South up to just outside Edinburgh and so whilst it is now “home” I’ve no local knowledge at all. There’s a direct flight from Calgary to Edinburgh now so I’m contemplating bringing our bikes to give the trip some more purpose and new trails could be fun.

Sweajnr has been brought up on a steady diet of BC trails including bike parks and he’s at the point where a BC blue is mostly in his wheel house. Climbing is something done out of necessity but he can manage a reasonable ride when sufficiently motivated.

So couple of requests / questions:
Recommended loops / locations much appreciated. I’m assuming I’ll have access to a car and bike rack at this point.

I’ve been looking at trailforks and am curious about the grading: In BC we go Green, Blue, Black, DoubleBlack (red lines). I’m assuming (or perhaps hoping) that the UK grading is like Europe Ski hills and it’s green, blue, red, black?

With Peebles/Inners you’ve pretty much hit the jackpot for a young rider. Glentress. Depending on exact ability, starting at the bottom and making up a loop of bits of the blue and red would be a good start. Mine were 7 and 9 last time we rode there and – after a brief tow up the climb to the Buzzards Nest car park, we played around the freeride park then headed straight out on fireroad to Spooky Wood climb. Down Spooky Wood then continue on the reds, or turn left onto the blues. Make sure whatever you do, Blue Velvet and Berm Baby Berm are favourites with my two.

Yes, many will say drive up the forrest road to Buzzards Nest car park to avoid the initial climb, bvut they means they miss the final descent which is fun for kids.and a nice way to finish.

Mine are firmly blue with a splash of red at GT so we’ve yet to venture to Inners etc with them.

Correct.

Glentress green will be too tame (but is actually great fun for riding as fast as possible). There is no getting away from climbing in glentress but there are two carparks a lower and an upper (which is about halfway up.)

From the upper carpark you get a green and the upper parts of the blue reds and blacks. Which you can loop and loop to your hearts content. The reds and blues are all totally ridable with chicken runs throughout, most of the black is too but it’s a lot longer for climbing. When you need a break you fire down the blue or red from the upper carpark to the lower one for food.

You could do gypsy glen for something a bit different (I imagine) to BC.

I live in Peebles so know it pretty well and have done all that with 7yearold nephew except the gypsy glen.

For something really different. You could ride to a bothy/camp/bivvy for a night as there are no access limitations (that will affect you).

Yes, many will say drive up the forrest road to Buzzards Nest car park to avoid the initial climb, bvut they means they miss the final descent which is fun for kids.and a nice way to finish.

I agree with not missing it but think it fits in better as a middle bit.

Yup, green, blue, red, black.

The legendary Glentress, one of the 7 stanes trail centres, is very close to Edinburgh. It’s near Peebles.

The blue is excellent! Great fun. Love it. There are two carparks – one at the bottom and one half way up – so there are options to session some of the fabulous sections – berm baby berm for example – near the top car park without doing too much climbing. Parking at the bottom is advisable and whilst will involve a fair climb, it’s well worth it on the way back down as the sections from the top carpark down to the bottom are very flowy and fun.

There’s also some great riding to be had on the pentland hills on the southern edge of Edinburgh.

Yes to the grading, but IME a BC blue covers UK Red and the easier end of blacks. He might find glentress a little lacking in challenge, but will probably still have fun. There’s a lot of unofficial trails in that area too, not all on Trailforks and certainly not as well signposted (or maintained) as BC trails.
Its also worth bearing in mind that for anything unofficial the trail grading on Trailforks is pretty subjective and I’ve ridden some trails that were way off what I’d expect from their correct grade (mainly under graded on TF).

@joshvegas

You could do gypsy glen for something a bit different

Still not got around to riding this, is it one for the summer / dry?

Very much so!

On a balmy summers evening blast down the hill and straight into the chippy.

is it one for the summer / dry?

It’s a nice XC ride out at any time of year but there’s a short section at the top that can get a bit boggy in the winter.

We did it a couple of weeks ago and it was wet but fine.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2obhzFE]2023-01-13_03-11-42[/url] by StuartBrettle, on Flickr

Thanks all. Sounds like it’s worth planning on packing the bikes!

IME a BC blue covers UK Red and the easier end of blacks.

If that is the case, maybe head over to Inners for laps of Angry Sheep, Green Wing and Trail With No Name..?

Agree with all the stuff above about glentress except where to park. If you have any riding buddies, or can drag your patents along to the cafe then defo drive to the top, ride BBB etc and then leave the kid in the cafe and nip up yourself to get the car.

Great day out.

I’d think from the description he’d be ok on some of the easier unmarked trails at GT like thunderstruck and careless whisper.
As for where to park I’d leave the car at the bottom and if he doesn’t want to pedal jump on the uplift bus.

You can hire bikes from Alpine Bikes at Glentress if that makes your travel a bit easier.
There are other hire shops in the area.

I’d park at the top car park, Buzzard’s Nest, if you can at Glentress, it’s basically the hub for the trails and so you can do lots of loops from there, and figure out what he likes. There’s the little jumps section, the blue trail Berm Baby Berm is a highlight and laps right back to the car park as an intro, the blue down to the bottom starts there too and has a nice climb back up, but you can also easily decide to go and do the reds or similar. I think he’ll find the blues a bit tame and maybe even the red, but you can also easily dip your toe in the more natural stuff like Zoom or Bust which also loops nicely back to that car park.

And there’s also always lots of people there, so it’s an easy place to pick up opinions and advice. You can always drive down to the cafe then back up.

Good to know on the rentals but in a potentially ironic twist sweajnr’s brakes are Euro/NA set-up (mine are still moto right=front) – revenge for all the times UK people have to visit Europe….

Where is “just outside Edinburgh”? I am “just outside Edinburgh” and could show you some decent local trails for something slightly different.

Good point. If you compare Canada… Wick is “just outside Edinburgh”

Family is in East Linton. Google reckons it’s ~1 hour to Glentress.

I’d go GT. Your about the same distance to Yair which has lots of great natural stuff, which would be tough on a 9yo. Mind if of the above suggestions seem brutal for a 9yo.

Take kids go to GT ride or uplift(if they do a single up) to top car park. Ride blue then red top stuff, that’ll include spooky wood. (Some great stuff). If he’s comfortable ride down to cafe for lunch (red through the pies, then the last fun swoopy blue to bottom). If not too knackered uplift to top, ride to top of spooky again then red all the way to bottom. If he isn’t up for parts of it then some of the suggestions above are going to be well above his capability.