Routes in Ballater area

I’ve got a cottage booked for a few nights next week in Ballater, and I would like to take the bikes up.

My wife is convinced that all “mountain biking” is all RedBull rampage type stuff, and not for her. Quite happy riding on the road though.

What I’m looking for is nice graded landrover track stuff in the General Ballater area – nothing scary, nothing daunting as a gentle introduction to riding on something other than tarmac.

So what recommendations do you all have for a nice loop / out an back. Weather looks fairly blustery so probably low level is best..

Not familiar with this place, but after glancing at the name (and not reading it properly) I do hope there’s a trail called Galactica.

You could stop at Starbuck’s after the ride.

The Balmoral estate has lots of good trails. Head up the Loch Muick road and into the Balmoral estate. I love the road through to Invercauld which was the original Deeside road to Braemar. That area is an off road paradise.

You could pedal up to the top of Heatbreak Ridge and then double back down on the same track. We did the full route when passing through last year. The bike shop in the town centre were first class in pointing routes out.
If you get chance the full route is well worth it. There is also a trail that runs along the side of the river back to the town from the bottom of Heartbreak Ridge

There is also the Deeside Way which is mainly off road.

There is also a trail that runs along the side of the river back to the town from the bottom of Heartbreak Ridge

Which is very nice. Do this

How much elevation is she up for? Could head up the east side of the river Gairn (dead end unclassified road) to morven lodge, ride due east past the south of morven and descend LRT towards raebush. Pop out on unclassified road and where it joins b9119 at lochhead follow LRT to climb back over to turnerhall (Forestry commission CP) ride back along the deeside way to ballater. Not too far but gives a bit of a wilderness feel on the morven lodge stretch

Glentanar is very pleasant for this type of riding too, could ride from ballater and cutover at ballaterach to etnachnach or further down the valley at the dinnet bridge.

Glenmuick and balmoral estate are good shouts too

Remember there is still massive storm damage in all the forests in this area. many of the fire roads  maybe blocked

https://dmbins.com/blog/storm-trail-update/?fbclid=IwAR1fj2saqaQPD64TJCy3Cbquv5ZH9AqLhB9wBGldAUFX4SjLnqy1dMe9rN4

bits of this look like they might fit the bill

Deeside Trail

cheers,

Keith

Nice! Thanks one an all, got some good suggestions there for me to go through.

As for the question about elevation gain, probably fairly minimal – one for the weather and risk/probability of ice &snow plus also on account it’s forecast to be pretty blustery weather wise.