inverness/elgin,need routes help

altern_8

of up to scotland for a weeks holiday,staying just outside inverness,been looking on net for some routes but cant find any round the area,found a couple near "Ben Aigan ",but was hoping to find sum in the forests as well round this area,so was hoping someone might be able to help me out!!!!!!!

CFS

Trail Centres: Learnie near Inverness, Moray Monster near Elgin, Laggan, Golspe further afield. Try the Forestry Commision website for details.

Tracks: Culbin forest, Great Glen cycle route above Loch Ness , Glen Einich, Ryvoan, Burma Road near Aviemore. Google those and you should get something. There are also some wee books on Amazon with route details.

Liftman

If you are up that way you have to try Golspie, absolutely superb trail, its a good hour n a bit further past Inverness but defo worth the effort.

altern_8

CFS wrote:

Trail Centres: Learnie near Inverness, Moray Monster near Elgin, Laggan, Golspe further afield. Try the Forestry Commision website for details.

Tracks: Culbin forest, Great Glen cycle route above Loch Ness , Glen Einich, Ryvoan, Burma Road near Aviemore. Google those and you should get something. There are also some wee books on Amazon with route details.

cheers c.f.s>dont supoose you have any links to forest websites round that area,only one i can find is for ben aigan,and been told there are a few trails in the forres area,but cant find them????


liftman>im going up there on the wednesday,seen pics of it,and it looks very good.

woodywmb

You'll find links at the end of this site.

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/comms/s ... ardinal=10

doug@basqueMTB.com

I'm from up there originally. There's some 'must do' stuff up there, within half an hour of Inverness.

Stuff I Don't Recommend:
Learnie- the best stuff is closed and it's a bit limited I think. Only worth if for a half day I reckon.
Great Glen Cycle Way - not for me, pretty basic fireroady but pretty.
Burma Road - often recommended. It's a great way to cycle past some fantastic riding without actually doing any :-)

Stuff I Do Recommend:
Golspie - you'll make it there in an hour and a smidgen. It's great. Really good!
Contin - Go to Square Wheels in Strathpeffer (<30mins from Inverness) and buy a map. The Strathpuffer course is great but ask Steve or one of the shop boys to point out the XC race course. It's properly good singletrack. You could do 2 days here easily.
Aviemore - Go to one of the shops, probably bothy although Fat Tread is a nice shop but is harder to find. Get a map and ask them to direct you to Badaguish, the old SS race course. It's great. You can also spend hours exploring around Loch An Eilan (spelling will be wrong) which is really nice.
Laggan - It's great IMO. The cake in the cafe is exceptional.

There's new stuff down towards Elgin but I don't know it too well.

altern_8

doug@basqueMTB.com wrote:

I'm from up there originally. There's some 'must do' stuff up there, within half an hour of Inverness.

Stuff I Don't Recommend:
Learnie- the best stuff is closed and it's a bit limited I think. Only worth if for a half day I reckon.
Great Glen Cycle Way - not for me, pretty basic fireroady but pretty.
Burma Road - often recommended. It's a great way to cycle past some fantastic riding without actually doing any :-)

Stuff I Do Recommend:
Golspie - you'll make it there in an hour and a smidgen. It's great. Really good!
Contin - Go to Square Wheels in Strathpeffer (<30mins from Inverness) and buy a map. The Strathpuffer course is great but ask Steve or one of the shop boys to point out the XC race course. It's properly good singletrack. You could do 2 days here easily.
Aviemore - Go to one of the shops, probably bothy although Fat Tread is a nice shop but is harder to find. Get a map and ask them to direct you to Badaguish, the old SS race course. It's great. You can also spend hours exploring around Loch An Eilan (spelling will be wrong) which is really nice.
Laggan - It's great IMO. The cake in the cafe is exceptional.

There's new stuff down towards Elgin but I don't know it too well.

cheers for that,im deff going to do golspie,and might have a look at contin as well,im hoping to find sum stuff to ride round forres area,might have to buy a os map once i get up there and try to plan a little ride round there,sumone on moray mtb club forum which i popped on said there is 30kms of single track,im deff out for 2 days while up there,hopefully her indoors will let me do 3 days

CFS

Forestry Commission link below.

The related pages on the RH side cover Laggan, etc. Learnie is fine, nice view over the firth and the Blue flows nicely. Laggan is the best IMO and Golspie is very good, as said above great views.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6MRFE5

I've heard Moray doesn't really compareto Laggan and Golspie but not done it myself. I'm sure there is good stuff.

Golspie is not Forestry commission so not on their site

http://www.highlandwildcat.com/

Foll Zofalot

Ben Aigan: The Pink Fluffy Bunny (Orange Grade) and The Mast Blast (Red Grade) pretty good.
TBH if your going all that way you really want to do the Highland Wildcat at Golspie and the Upper Red at Laggan Wolftrax.
Hope you get some decent weather

stanfree

I planned a trip this week but when I woke up on Tuesday morning in Elgin with the mother of all hangovers I also found there was a covering of snow there. I did make it to Fochabers and attempted the monster trails at Ordie quish but only made it as far as the soup dragon before feeling ruff and with a soaking arse. Still it looked good but be aware a lot of the trails are closed just now due to harvesting and maintenance. I was advised that Sanquar woods is also really good and has something for every level.

The moral of my post is dont go on the piss with old school mates I hadn't seen for 15 years the night before.

altern_8

thanks Foll Zofalot,im deff going upto golspie,like i said in a previous post,i might grab myself a os map and try to find sum riding round forres area as there is suppose to be some good singletrack round there,but when ever i ask anyone they keep quiet about where abouts it is, :?

stanfree wrote:

I planned a trip this week but when I woke up on Tuesday morning in Elgin with the mother of all hangovers I also found there was a covering of snow there. I did make it to Fochabers and attempted the monster trails at Ordie quish but only made it as far as the soup dragon before feeling ruff and with a soaking ars*. Still it looked good but be aware a lot of the trails are closed just now due to harvesting and maintenance. I was advised that Sanquar woods is also really good and has something for every level.

The moral of my post is dont go on the wee-wee with old school mates I hadn't seen for 15 years the night before.

ive got family who live in elgin but wont be going out on wee-wee with them,then again it just depends if my cousins drag me out....thanks for the heads up about the trails closed,hopefully they might be open come end of march tho

Foll Zofalot

Hey Altern,
Im pretty lucky as my folks have a caravan on the moray coast so I get up there a fair bit Have never found anything exciting around Forres way, if you do though feel free to PM me!, I checked out some of the forestry to the south of Forres on the hill there but all I could find was dull firetrack and some really old singletrack which wasn't really that rideable, I heard the FC closed it down as someone ended up getting winched out after a fall. Not that the SeaKing had far to fly, there only a few miles along the road at Lossie!
I have yet to take a look but I believe there is a wee bike park at Forres on the road out of Forres as you head towards Dallas Dhu Distillery. Somewhere about here I think (red arrow-if the linky works!)
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=30 ... &A=Y&Z=120

As for Golspie...!

altern_8

Foll Zofalot wrote:

Hey Altern,

As for Golspie...!

hi foll zofalot....i went on moray mountain bike clubs site,and posted on there,it was sumone off there mate that said they would be able to take me on a 30mile xc run from forres taking in sum of the forest round there,said there aint a lot of downhills,but a good ride out,but wouldnt post the route for me......cheers for the pics of golspie,ive seen a few on a site i went on,looks good,just hope there aint to many big jumps as i normally end up going over handle bars ...was looking at down towards aviemore as well,but my wife and daughter are coming up with me so cant really be out for that long,golspie is only hour and half drive from me,and the trails there are only short and by looks of youre pic they are marked up as well,so i shouldnt be able to get lost :oops:

Foll Zofalot

Nah, you won't get lost at Golspie - it's really well signed, it's just a real barsteward of a climb though! (but well worth it). Have a good one!

CFS

The pictures look like they are at the top of the hill near the huge statue.

The route post you can see would be the Black run and it has big rocky drops and no chicken runs. There might be a fire road which goes up there.

Everything on the Red is rollable however and it is a great run and you can do it a couple of times if you want to get the distance up.