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The Centres, 7stanes mountain biketrails
Find out more | Home | The Centres | Weekend breaks
The 7 Sites
To see where our 7 centres are, click here. Entry is free at all the sites.
Glentress and Innerleithen
Glentress and Innerleithen in the Tweed Valley have a massive reputation for some of the best mountain biking in the UK and beyond.
It's just 3.5hrs drive from Manchester.
Glentress is probably the best biking centre in Britain, winning several awards. It has brilliant trails of all grades, from a beginners skills area and easy green routes to a more challenging red run and a 30km black route with over 800m of vertical climbing making up a truly epic ride. There is also the Freeride Park where anyone interested in tricks and skills can spend time. Glentress has a top-notch café, a bike shop with bike hire, changing and showering facilities, and a great atmosphere. And to help cyclists of all abilities, there is a Bike Patrol on hand to provide local knowledge, bike repair and emergency assistance.
Innerleithen, situated just a few miles south east of Glentress, is home to some of the UK's finest downhill and freeride trails, as well as a cracking red-graded XC route. There's jumps, rock features and berms. There's also a pre-book uplift service at Innerleithen, for anyone who's not keen on pushing their bikes to the top of downhill rides.
» Click here to get directions to the site
Close to the Scotland-England border, (just 2hr 40mins drive from Manchester) Newcastleton has trails for all levels. There is plenty of fun to be had here on routes shorter than at most of the other 7stanes.
The Skills Area has all ability loops and features, and is an excellent place to practise your skills before heading out onto the routes proper. For those looking to stretch their legs a little more, the recently-upgraded 6km Caddrouns Blue trail is just the ticket. Parts of this trail are built with less experienced riders firmly in mind so it's a fun introduction to real mountain biking. The slightly longer Linns trail is a scenic route which sticks to forest roads and the 16km Red Route offers a fantastic ride for more experienced riders, with fast, narrow singletrack clinging to the valleyside, crossing bridges and boardwalks. There is also an orange-graded bike park on site.
If you fancy spending longer and want to explore more, you can also pick up the Cross Border Trail to Kielder and the Reivers Cycle Route from Newcastleton.
At the end of the day, nearby Newcastleton has a choice of hotels, shops and cafés to cater for you before or after your ride.
Ae is only 20 minutes from the M74 motorway (and less than 3hrs from Manchester) but ride its trails and you'll think you're in another world.
Ae has a great entry level trail aimed at families with young children, that takes you up to the Water of Ae (a great place to stop and picnic overlooking the river). But it also boasts some tougher red-graded rides, where you can ride freestyle, try jumps, bike through coniferous forest and explore some very steep climbs and descents. If Downhill is more your thing, there are entry level and more challenging DH routes (with a pre-book uplift service if you don't fancy pushing your bike up!)
To make a weekend of it, the town of Dumfries is around 15 minutes drive away, and has a great range of facilities available.
Mabie
Mabie forest, the original mountain biking venue in the South West of Scotland, lies just a few miles south of Dumfries and caters for beginners right through to the most expert of riders.
You can be there in less than 3 hours. And with a skills area, café, bike hire and shop on site, it's easy to spend a full day there.
There are simple routes that are a great introduction to mountain biking, mostly on peaceful forest roads in striking surroundings. The skills area is great for new or intermediate riders (including those keen to practise jumps and freeride) and the red-gradedPhoenix Trail is a classic route; testing climbs, fast descents, berms and water splashes.
With its coastal setting and the lack of any big hills, Dalbeattie has a relaxed feel, but the riding is far from dull – the outcrops of rock and fine views make sure of that.
It takes about 3hrs to drive to Dalbeattie from Manchester, and the local village has places to stay and eat.
There's a broad range of trails on offer and it's the granite rock that defines the riding here. While the green-graded Ironhash trail offers easy biking mostly on forest roads, the blue-graded Moyle Hill route will have your tyres crossing short sections of rough rock and narrow trail – but the riding is fun rather than difficult. On the red-graded Hardrock trail things go up a gear, and the surface becomes both rougher and rockier, with several notably challenging stretches. It's the black-graded sections, however – The Slab, the Terrible Twins and Volunteer Ridge – that get people talking and the heart racing.
Kirroughtree
Kirroughtree is a favourite family venue with a wide range of trails, a seasonal café and a great kids' play area. But it's also home to some of the best technical singletrack in the country.
For beginners, there's the gorgeous Bargaly Wood trail, but more challenges await on the blue, red and black trails with woodland plunges, rock step ups, berms and jumps. For the brave, the Black Craigs route will take you over huge slabs and ridges of exposed granite, linked by boulder causeways, where skills and bags of nerve are required.
Kirroughtree is less than 4hrs drive from Manchester, and there are some great places to stay in the surrounding area if you'd like to explore Galloway at the same time.
Glentrool
You can discover the wild heart of Galloway at Glentrool, with a wide range of riding experiences, all of which start and finish at Glentrool visitor centre.
Glentrool is great for less experienced riders, as all their tracks are beginner or intermediate level. These include the Big Country route, which unlike the other 7stanes trails, is all on minor public and forest roads, without any singletrack. With magnificent views of lochs and hills contrasting with sheltered woodlands, and some testing climbs and big descents in the course of its 58km, it's a challenging but rewarding day out.
Glentrool also has shorter beginner routes that include forest and farm tracks, and a slightly more challenging blue-grade route that climbs gradually up through the forest to a ridge overlooking Loch Trool, before a fun-filled 2.5km section plunges you back down to the visitor centre.
A 4hr drive from Manchester, Glentrool is part of the Galloway Forest Park – 300 square miles of heather-clad hills, rugged rock faces, burns cascading down magestic slopes and the forest, moorland and lochs rising up to the grandeur of the mountains.
For info on planning a trip to 7stanes, please click here