Moving to Aberdeen - Riding routes/areas ??

afcbian

I got made redundant 5 weeks ago
But hey ho. One door shuts another opens and now I have a job in Aberdeen which I start on Monday.
A bit of a change in scenery compared with Dorset and the New Forest but have to say I am looking forward to it.
Will be based in Westhill and working in Sauchen and living on my own for as long as it takes to sell the house and move my wife and kids up.

Anyone on here local and know the best riding routes around there for on and off road ?
I am taking the MTB for the first few weeks as I understand it's a tad snowy at the moment :shock:

lg18

Congratulations on your job up here! What treats there are in store. Very very different from Dorset - you might miss the warm weather and lovely country pubs and ale and cider and games of petanque and cream teas..... but you can look forward to fantastic awesome coastline of endless empty sandy beaches, big cliffs covered in seabirds, castles... forests, rivers leaping with salmon, huge empty wild Cairngorm landscapes full of deer, not to mention the ferry from Aberdeen docks up to Orkney and Shetland.... And we get not much more rainfall than Cambridge.

Oh, you asked about MTBing, sorry!
Built trails: Kirkhill in north Aberdeen (v short); Pitfichie, near Inverurie (simple - up then down, red and black); The Lecht (1.25 hr drive West - short and expensive for uplift, but do it multiple times. Not done it yet as it's new this year); Moray Monster trails (Orange, black, reds, blues, greens, at Fochabers and Craigellachie, 1.5hrs drive away to NW).
Scolty/Blackhall Forest by Banchory has some hand-made insane stuff made by locals. Look on You-Tube - insane. Not for me, but there's some nice single-track and fire-road for normal people there too. Same goes for Fetteresso (SW of Aberdeen, SE of Banchory). Crathes Castle grounds (just E of Banchory) has some lovely single track riding although you'll meet a few dog walkers on weekends (all short, but you can just explore for ages, and it is nice). I can show you around there if you like as it's my local spot.

Endless natural stuff, although mainly landrover track type stuff, some of it epic, e.g .up Deeside (esp. Glen Tanar and the various Mounth Roads (old drovers roads), and in Cairngorms (Ballochbuie (Balmoral Estate!), Quoich, etc etc). Definitely buy the OS maps and explore!

There's also some old railways that have been made into walkways/cycle paths (Deeside and one going N past Ellon etc I think). There are some nice quiet country lanes for road cycling - the map shows how few there up here compared to, e.g., Dorset, but they are really quiet. Particularly nice around Donside, with scattered castles to visit for sunny summer breaks in the ride!

You'll struggle to even cycle on the roads here at the moment, we have 2 feet of snow in Banchory, and many many roads are blocked. Might need studded tyres if you want to ride this side of May (if it's like last winter!).

This is a v useful website, loads of trails and ideas:
http://www.ecurieneep.co.uk/

Have fun, and welcome to the insanely cold and snowy NE!

Lucy

EnglishChris

I spent the last 6 years up in Aberdeen and as Lucy says, there is plenty of riding. Some is very close to Aberdeen (Kirkhill and Fettereso are twenty mins from the centre and great for an evening spin), some is further away - Moray Monster trails is an hour or so, Laggan Wolftrax a couple of hours, and Glentress about three hours and the likes of Ae and Kirroughtree are about four - five hours I guess. And again, as Lucy says, plenty of natural riding within an hour or two.

I really loved Kirkhill forest. Nothing is properly waymarked or mapped in the way that the trail centres are but there is heaps of natural single track there. The built bit Lucy refers to is a short fun man made bit at the bottom, full of berms and table tops but you can easily spend two hours doing a route around the real singletrack. A fire road / landrover track basically goes around Kirkhill but there are numerous singletrack trails from this up and down to the top, which you can do in any number of combinations. Some of it is VERY rooty and in winter can be pretty muddy. I went there a fair bit and was still discovering sections so its best to go with someone who knows the area a few times and can show you the basic lay of the land so you can then go off and explore without worrying you'll never find the car park again! Fetteresso is similar - there were some unofficial jumps etc that had been built but I think the Forestry Commission removed them. Even so, there are a few snaking singletrack routes around there that are not really signed so its best to go for a spin with someone who knows it at least once.

I'm in London now and miss being able to head out after work for a couple of hour spin round Kirkhill....

Mr Dog

Is the 'afc' coincidence?

Lucy - Just switching from road to mtb... your post is inspiring. How good is Fetteresso as I live south of the city? 8)

Mr Dog

Is the 'afc' coincidence?

Lucy - Just switching from road to mtb... your post is inspiring. How good is Fetteresso as I live south of the city? 8)

lg18

Hi Mr Dog - most of Durris and Fetteresso is fire road which is fine but a bit boring, but there is some nice single track too if you know where to look. The Ecurie Neeps website (given in my previous post) has the best route that you could try out (they call it Swanley, after the car park area). As the previous poster said, there used to be some handmade stuff done by locals (jumps, north-shore (scarily not attached!), but this may have been removed. Best to just let yourself get lost in there and explore! Same goes for Scolty/Blackhall. I'm still trying to work out the best routes in there!

The landrover tracks can go on forever for epic rides if you want them to, linking them up you can travel through Durris, Ferteresso and through to Kerloch (S of Banchory). In summer these are fine on a cross bike.

Lucy

afcbian

cheers for the posts guys.....and girl
All sounds great, can't wait to get up there, snow or no snow.
Love riding offroad in the snow.

Every other weekend will be free as I will be up there on my own so looking forward to trying some of the rides.

robinbolt

The car park at Whitehills is the best start point for the cross country routes. A notice board provides a last minute reminder of the routes before you head up Tillyfourie Hill on a fire break road. As the hill flattens out the road forks right. Take this and continue to you meet the blue route at a Tee junction.

Miggins

You'll enjoy the riding in Aberdeenshire. I moved up from Surrey about 5 years ago (lived in Dorset too, for a while - Christchurch). Not much to add to what's been said above as it's pretty much been covered. Just wrap up warm and get a load of OS maps!

sheepworryingbhoy

There's not a whole lot of riding to be done up here at the moment, 9 days of continual snow showers has had a say on that.....

Should be fine around the end of March thou'

afcbian

Haven't got there yet.
Came up as far as Glasgow on Sunday eve and stopped with relatives. The plan was to travel onward Monday morning............ oh yeah ??? :shock:

Managed to get as far as Paisley before deciding that today was perhaps not the best to travel through the central belt area. I turned round and went back for more tea and toast. By far and away my best decision this year

I feel for those poor souls stuck on the M8 and M80 etc

I will try tomorrow

TheWildHaggis

Congrats on the new job.

As mentioned Kirkhill is the local, some decent stuff their and always good for an explore. Further afield, we have the lecht and the mouth roads again as mentioned. But if you want proper mtb'ing then you have Mt Keen and the Fungal Road, Glen Mick to Glen Doll, Glass Tullachean (sp) in Glen Shee. All great full days out that will make you smile and hurt!

Absolutly loads up here.

If you want drop me a PM when you move and I can take you on a tour.

afcbian

Cheers guys.
Been up here a couple of weeks now and settling in nicely.
Not got out on the bike yet. The snow only just went then it's back again :shock:
Will be out this weekend no matter what. Might head over to Kirkhill and see whats what

lg18

Hey, great you've made it, and are settling in ok!

Well in Banchory the snow never did disappear, so we've got new snow on top of old snow. When will I ever get to play on my new bike? And before everyone says "snow biking is fun!" - not when it's too deep to ride! (can you get ploughs fitted to the front of MTBs?). Many of the tracks have turned to ice - still trying to decide whether to invest in ice tyres, but they're expensive and heavy.... hmmmm....

Let me know how you get on at Kirkhill, I could make it over there is it's rideable (my local stuff isn't).

L

VerwoodAsh

Hi Ian,

Amanda told me about the situation the other day Hope all goes well. Olivia will be upset when your family moves.

Ashley

afcbian

Cheers Ash.
Will be different, that's for sure.
Have to say I am really enjoying it up here. People are great, countryside is epic and snow is never ending :shock: :shock:

afcbian

lg18 wrote:

Hey, great you've made it, and are settling in ok!

Well in Banchory the snow never did disappear, so we've got new snow on top of old snow. When will I ever get to play on my new bike? And before everyone says "snow biking is fun!" - not when it's too deep to ride! (can you get ploughs fitted to the front of MTBs?). Many of the tracks have turned to ice - still trying to decide whether to invest in ice tyres, but they're expensive and heavy.... hmmmm....

Let me know how you get on at Kirkhill, I could make it over there is it's rideable (my local stuff isn't).

L

Didn't go in the end.
I can't really get out at night until I know the routes and can't really get to know the routes 'til I can see the floor !!!!