Two Ride

7 what?

The 7stanes (Scots for stone) are 7 trail centres in the south of Scotland, 6 in Dumfries & Galloway (Ae, Dalbeattie, Glentrool, Kirroughtree, Mabie and Newcastleton) and 1 in the Scottish borders (The Tweed Valley - made up of Glentress and Innerleithen, which of course is two, go figure). They're known as the 7stanes because each features a stone somewhere in the forest- no kidding!

The 7stanes project is managed by Forestry Commission Scotland along with a series of council and tourism partners who joined forces back in 2000 to raise £1 million towards the initiative. Match-funding from the European Union brought the £2m project to life.

Glentress is less than an hour south of Edinburgh and has become the most developed and popular of the centres. According to Emma Guy of the Hub bike shop and cafe, Glentress receives four times the mountain bikers that Whistler does. Of course Whistler is only open for bikes a quarter of the year, so the figures would work out about the same in a similar timescale. Regardless they are some impressive figures.

Like Whistler the 7stanes receive more and more riders every year to the point where local hospitals are noticing the intake from them. Eventually numbers will flatten out as with the ski resorts but expect numbers to rise again when the rumored chair lifts appear.

The others 7stanes don’t have as good facilities, in fact some have none and are a bit more remote. This helps give them all a character of their own but means you need a car to access them. More of which at the end.

The Plan

Our original plan was to ride 5 red routes, one at each of centre. We eliminated Dalbeattie because of the extra 10km over the other red routes and the fact it’s reviews weren’t that hot. Glentrool wasn’t ridden because it doesn’t have any red route or in fact any dedicated mountain trail, which makes it an odd one to feature in the project.

In the end we didn’t ride Newcastleton because of lack of ‘drying time’. Scotland can be very wet even in summer, just ask the riders at the World Cup at Fort William. The red route at Newcastleton is only 10.5km and so didn’t match up distance wise with the others making us feel a bit better about missing it. All the centres ridden feature a red route of between 14 and 20km and took us about 3 hours each with photo and food stops. Each one also has its own character, which in man made trail building is notable in itself.

Kirroughtree

Our first outing was to Kirroughtree the furthest westerly centre and part of the Galloway Forest Park. Kirroughtree’s red route is called ‘The Twister’ and is 14km long and features as part of the black route, ‘Black Craigs’ which is another 15km on top.

Kirroughtree’s main feature is that it is all singletrack. That’s right, 14km of it without any firetrack. Of course that’s not strictly true but you only use firetrack briefly. ‘The Twister’ is a fairly firm and smooth trail made up of small stones or shale and very little mud or dirt. It’s ideal for a hardtail like a Cove but not really for a six and six bike. When it was first built some complained it looked and felt too much like tarmac. It was too wet for us to tell this time out.

The information for Kirroughtree claims it’s ‘at the more technical end for a red route’ but with the chicken runs around the obstacles we wouldn’t agree. It certainly is a fast trail and if it wasn’t for the absolute deluge we had to ride in we would say it felt quite short. The trails are ‘all weather’ which is a damn good job otherwise you would never get round. The other thing about ‘The Twister’ is you never really have to slog up hill for long periods but you get a good share of downs. This is a lot to do with the trail being singletrack, good for hiding the long climbs and stops you looking up at firetrack for an hour.

The are some nice drops, slabs and rocks to ride but we found you could shoot past them and have to go back. That’s a problem with riding new trails, you never know what is the other side of a drop. As for a long flowery description of the trail, it was fast and fun singletrack sprinkled with the odd ‘feature’ to ride or avoid but it’s much the same all the way round without the ‘sections’ of the other trails. Kirroughtree is a trail with good flow throughout and remains totally different from the other rides. If we had to ride a longer trail Kirroughtree would be the place to do it. Just not in the rain.

Forest of Ae

The ‘Ae line’ is hidden in the Forest of Ae in the middle of the 7stanes area. Ae village is quite remote and if you are coming from the north it’s a bit of a backroads drive through the forest. The new parking is only signposted approaching from the south which is a bit of mistake. We had to ride Ae early in the morning to avoid the next batch of torrential rain so didn’t see anyone else until near the end of the ride. Ae does include a 1.6km downhill course and a bit of a bike park at end of ‘Ae line’. The car park features no comforts but an uplift for the downhill course is apparently available, although there was no sign of it.

The ‘Ae line’ shares nothing but a vowel and a some table tops with its Canadian namesake. It is an eclectic mix of backcountry ride and bmx course and is the only marked bike trail in the forest at 19.6km. The trail is dirt and rocks and for the most part has a nice natural feel to it. A mix of singletrack and firetrack take you away from the car park with a large amount of climbing on the firetrack before you hit anything interesting. The interesting part is in the form of ‘Granny Green Luv’ and then ‘The Face’. Both feel like alpine trails and with some high sided switchbacks resembling the ‘Crosets B’ downhill, for a brief minute we felt right at home. It’s quite steep with lots of small drops and berms making it fast and furious.

Of course you pay for it at the bottom with a steep climb out and onto open firetrack before ‘Bran Burn Bash’ which is another fast singletrack in clearcut. More firetrack climbing becomes a little wearing before you ride ‘The Edge’ which isn’t as exciting as you think before heading onto some muddy descending to a stream. For us that was the best half of the ride and it just got a bit disjointed from then on.

‘Nil desperandum’ is a tiresome climb on more firetrack and what looked like a forest building site before the over hyped ‘Omega man’. This is billed as a ‘long spectacular trail’ but ended up being some singletrack climbing in clearcut before a long section of hard trail with many table tops and jumps. At the end you are greeted with a warning sign and a downhill bmx course before finally having two choices of about 100m of north shore.

‘Ae line’ would have been a better ride if ‘Omega man’ was a decent stint of downhill singletrack like at Glentress and lose the bike park at the end. Well of course you can keep it but not at the end of a 3 hour backcountry ride. At the moment ‘Ae line’ is for the rider who is 49% all mountain rider, 39% cross country, 9% bmx, 2% freerider and 1% downhiller. Makes for an ugly mix.

Mabie

Mabie is just south of Dumfries and features the 17km ‘Phoenix trail’ and a 2km north shore trail, the ‘Dark Side’. For us Mabie also featured a rainstorm and a gale force wind.

The first part of the trail is up but with a diversion in place we got a load of unwanted firetrack. It’s not a great start and until we exited the firetrack at the point you turn off to ride the ‘Dark Side’, it didn’t really get going. We did some more climbing on singletrack and hit ‘Descender Bender’, which must be some sort of joke as the trail climbs a lot.

Luckily the gale force wind was at our backs until we broke the tree line and the trail leveled out. Then of course it rained. This messed up the first descent which would have been sweet and fast. The rain abated and the trail got better with hard dirt and rock trails sprinkled with some wide wood work and bermed bends. Then the obligatory climb, this time a real sharp but short one before turning back on ourselves and heading into natural woodland.

The trails then opened out and some more wood work took us over ditches before becoming a fast and tight downhill singletrack with rocks and blind bends through undergrowth. At this point we were ripping and enjoying it. A brief climb took us across the start point before a nice fast loamy, rooty trail took us back to the car park.

The ‘Phoenix trail’ has a nice relaxed and natural feel to it with some good singletrack and without the initial diversion, makes for a good ride. Not really as exciting as Glentress, or fast and flowing like Kirroughtree, or as backcountry as Ae but a good solid trail. Oh and I didn’t spot a table top, not one.

Glentress

Glentress is the most easterly point of the 7stanes and in looks is more what you’d expect from Scotland. Glentress is also the most developed of the 7stanes with a cafe, bike shop, some changing rooms and the like. It also has other typical forest activity and is much busier than the other 7stanes.

We rode the unnamed red route at 19km but there is also a 29km black route and some shorter skills loops. If you drive up past the parking to the Buzzards Nest car park there is a small bike park with more table tops, wall rides etc. As you ride round there is also evidence of many other local trails.

The red route can be simply be described as one long climb on a mix of 20% singletrack and 80% firetrack and then a long downhill. By the time we reached the top at ‘Spooky Wood’ we were ready for some down. Its the longest and most boring climb we did at the 7stanes. The up side is the downhill is also the longest and best of all the 7stanes. It starts at a view point with an ominous sign warning you about the drops and jumps and how lots of people are getting injured on it.

We found nothing remotely scary on the downhill. Anyone with some fitness can get to the top and no doubt all manner of people do which is why there is a sign. Looking at at the braking bumps on the way down proves the lack of control some riders have.

The first part is a weird place to put a bmx course. A couple of rocks drops lead you into a load of hard packed table tops, 17 of, and jumps, 18 of and bermed switch backs. All adding up to 1.5km smooth surfaced fast but not difficult riding. The next sections are longer and more natural singletrack with rocks, roots, drops etc. Really top ripping and of course over too quickly. A brief firetrack climb takes you into the last downhill with much of the same with the option of some wide north shore. The red then joins up with the blue for a really fast run back to the start.

Glentress was the only place we saw other riders in the car park. This place is busy at weekends. The Cafe served up a decent cappuccino and cake, the first we has seen all week but looked a bit scruffy. The shop gets some bad reviews for price and service looked ok from the brief look round and was stocked up on Sombrio. Glentress is not the place to go on a hot weekend but there are plenty of other trails to explore and some more technical stuff hidden out there in the woods.

Wrap up

Each of the trails has its own feel. Natural feel? head for Mabie. Backcountry? head for Ae. Singletrack without the climbing? go to Kirroughtree. Downhill? head for Glentress but be ready to climb first.

We would happily ride any of these trails again depending on our mood. Glentress has more facilities and was the only one we felt had more ‘hidden’ fun to find. Kirroughtree would be the one we would go for if we wanted to try a longer trail.

The other question is how do the 7stanes stack up against the Welsh trail centres? Having ridden red routes at Afan, Coed y Brenin, Cwm Carn and Gwydyr we would without a doubt say the 7stanes are better. The simple reason for this is the Scottish trails have more flow and for the most part seem less man made. The sections are longer and link together better no question. If you want downhill Scotland is also better served with dedicated courses at Fort William, Ae and Innerleithen. Freeride and skills are also better catered for.

Of course the weather can make a lot of difference and the weather in Scotland sucked big time while we were there. Wales can also be wet but we have been lucky. We don’t see any reason Wales can’t step it up to match the 7stanes but it needs to focus less on the epics.

The other question is do the 7stanes match up to Whistler, Morzine and the like? The big problem here is Whistler, Morzine etc. have serious money invested from the ski seasons and are essentially holiday areas with big mountains and scenery. Biking is currently the minority activity, although global warming will change that, and Scotland is starting without that investment. I wouldn’t go on holiday to Peebles (next to Glentress) for a week without biking, but I sure would to Whistler.

Its 97 miles from Kirroughtree to Glentress the two centres furthest apart. They may share a name but are not connected. Having to get in the car to drive to one and then load up wet stuff and muddy bikes and go back to where you are staying is a British thing. Car culture gone mad. If you are going to have 7 different places to ride you need some way to get between them. Imagine if you went to Morzine for a week but had to drive 97 miles to Chatel to ride there. Would you go?

At this time the best biking in the UK is at the 7stanes. They have their issues and are only at the beginning of what they could be, but the riding is good and worth some of your time.

More photos on Flickr

Kirroughtree Rock movie

Requires Quicktime

Map of the 7Stanes

• Seven Stanes - Official Forestry Commision site
• Hub in the Forest - bike shop and cafe