Tarland Trails 2

Would like to give a “big up” to the Tarland Trails team and CRC for the completion and opening of the new Tarland Trails 2 trail centre.
There’s been a huge amount of effort gone into this development and it is a brilliant addition to our amazing trail network here in Aberdeenshire..
Trails all flow and link together perfectly and a whole day could be spent sessioning and looping in and around the trails..
Highlights for me are “Call Me Chris”, “Chris Cross” and “Fools Gold”.
Was great to see so many smiling faces in the car park over the weekend and everyone was buzzing.
For a man made, all weather centre, I am super impressed.
Make sure you buy a ticket in the car park as it’ll go into the trails further development.
Any make sure to spend some spare cash in Tarland !

Thought these didn’t open till Monday.

where are these ? I googled and it says Tarland Trails Pittenderich , but Tarland is 60 miles away from Pittenderich. So which one is it?

Located in Tarland

I think that there may have been concessions given over weekend.
I’d bought an annual pass to support them and got access from Thursday last week..
Been up 3 times already. Fantastic and thoroughly recommended

where are these ? I googled and it says Tarland Trails Pittenderich , but Tarland is 60 miles away from Pittenderich. So which one is it?

@stevie750 maybe the thing that caught me out got you too – searching “pittenderich” in Google maps takes me to Pittendreich, near Elgin 🤦

Genuinely thought a new trail centre had sprung up a few miles from my house without me noticing 😭

https://www.trailforks.com/region/tarland-trails-pittenderich/?activitytype=1&z=13.4&lat=57.15550&lon=-2.83304

Hoping for a wee visit on Tuesday. Looks fab.

did you make it Clubby ?

Yes. Horrible dreich drive up over the Cairn o Mount then it magically cleared to leave an amazing day.

Rode everything except Fools Gold (and Spine as it’s still closed). Cased half the landings on Crowd Surffin, so thought better if the bigger jumps.

Very much a winch and plummet venue. Climbs all smooth and rideable, but I do wish they’d maybe put in some technical options just to make it more interesting. Probably in the minority there though, so I can see why they didn’t spend the money and time doing so.

Scalextric and High Pressure were my favourites. On the face of it, nothing too challenging to ride until you up the speed, the it becomes way harder to stay smooth.

One thing did strike me though. Flat out down High Pressure, it’s been pebble smooth for miles then all of a sudden patches of rock armouring out of nowhere. Came as a bit of a shock. Could possible do with a few wee warning signs for first time riders.

At 90 minutes drive for me, it’s not somewhere I’ll be every month but for the lucky locals it’s a fantastic facility.

Managed to get there on Sunday morning. What a great facility!

In the NE, we’re spoiled for natural, rocky single-track but nowhere has anything even remotely similar to this – berms, jumps, easy progression. Great addition to the riding options.

Great fun for a good morning on the bike. We did everything (some a couple of times) except Crowd Surfing. Then it’s only a wee free-wheel into Tarland itself and the tearoom was great for a coffee and cake. I’m on the small bike (Orange Stage 4) at the moment and it was perfect :).

It’s incredible. Exactly what the north east needed. As Euain says we are not short on rocks and tech so it’s not really needed. You don’t need to go far to find more tech than you know what to do with. I’m sure some natural techy trails will begin to appear soon enough.

A bunch of us organise a family mtb trip once or twice a year. Back to Ballater this year so will be hitting up the new Tarland trails. Last ones were decent too!

Edit – reason we chose Ballater this year was because of the new trails.

but I do wish they’d maybe put in some technical options just to make it more interesting

That was my view from watching Jamie and Andrew’s video. Be great for kids and locals. I’ll probably pay a visit mid week next week just to video it.

How is the surface? Looks like it is going to get worn out very quickly.

How is the surface? Looks like it is going to get worn out very quickly.

I believe they have someone employed to maintain the trails – or at least keep on top of minor work and drainage etc. and get CRC in when things need properly repaired. So there seems to be some budget to keep it running well.

Most of the surface is pretty well engineered and CRC seem pretty well regarded and should know what they’re doing. I’m sure we’ll get braking bumps and some wear but hopefully it’ll hold up.

Hey TLR, hope you’re doing well.

Was there last night for the first time and still grinning like a loon this morning. Managed to ride all the trails at least once and the long blue to the car park is such an excellent way to finish. Also agree with what others have said….we have such a plethora of fantastic natural techy trails in the area but we were crying out for something like this.

I’m sitting in the car park after doing a top to bottom and it was good fun starting with the red then linking the blues on the way down. Fancy heading back up and linking the reds top to bottom but I’m just off nights and not sure I can face the climb again!
It’s well put together but I need more practice at berms especially the really tight ones that rapidly change directions. There’s certain parts where you need to watch your speed if like me your rubbish or not sure of jumping.
One observation though is that a good 1/3 of the bikes there were ebikes and I have to admit on the climb up there was a few times I wish I’d had one, only the second time out in about 8 months after I got flattened by COVID last September but the weather’s cracking so taking advantage and so we’re lots of others as the car park was about 3/4 full at 10am.

Bit behind the times with visiting. Thought the trails were pretty good. Easy to session some of them. Climb up to the top for High pressure wasn’t worth it and the last bit of the blue with that gravel was pish. Needs a burger van and electric hook up for all the ebikes lol Look forward to seeing what other trails are going to be put in in the future. Great for the local area.

Went last weekend with other half and the wee one. It is def more bike park than trail centre, the only bit that felt vaguely “traily” was “call me chris/chris cross”. Climb up to the top (high pressure) had nice views and most folk didn’t seem to want to climb up that far, even the Ebike mob. The last bermy bit needs some serious rain to wash off the scrattle and dust. I suspect that it will seem nicer once the vegetation has had a chance to grow back, it feels very barren and raw at the moment with not a lot to soften things.

I know that we don’t have something like this up here (E. Scotland) but I probably won’t go back unless I’m up there in bad weather. I’d much rather go to Aboyne or Ballater for natural technical riding, rather than smooth trails with big man made features that feel out of place with the surroundings.

It is also a bit frustrating that the trails that are suitable for kids or less confident riders (holy cow/party time) require quite a climb, and there is no other route down from them apart from snakes and ladders (which is currently quite scary even for competant adult riders. The original trails a few minutes ride down the road for beginners, etc. are ace though and still good for kids to learn on.

[edit] sounds a bit ungrateful. The trails are well made and suit a purpose (blatant bike park riding) but if you want trails then I’d go somewhere else.

{edit edit] also a good place to go and watch 25 year old overweight ebikers wrapped up in enough weatherproof gear to attempt an 8000m peak try to keep warm because they aren’t doing anything approaching excercise “fueling” themselves on monster drink before the climb and then celebrating their exertions at the bottom with a big pie and pack of biscuits.

I did Heartbreak ridge yesterday morning and Tarland in the afternoon. Two great rides with polar opposite riding. Tarland was great , the only trail I missed out was the black jump line as I haven’t got the skills to pay the bills. Like others have said the top is good but in all honesty I would probably miss it out next time as It’s not worth the climb. The Bermuda , Spline main red is great fun as Is the blue. Its a lovely forest to climb through as well. It will be interesting to see what they do next as all though it’s small there is romm for other trails there. The mega berm on the blue would have even Victor Meldrew grinning.
On hertbreak ridge , I had wanted to ride this for years but everytime I’ve stayed in Ballater I’ve always either done some walking or taken the gravel bike. It was superb and got quite hairy on the rock slab before you pop into the forest . I’d ride it again in a moment , It’s a bit like top cheif at fort bill buy more enjoyable. Deeside really is lovely though great bakers next to the coop .