Reviews for Drumlanrig Castle Mountain Bike Trails

Summary:
A Nice Little Trail Network

Review:
A mix of trails from Green to Red covering all abilities from balance bikes up. Trails are of good quality and well maintained with a variety of features and all are well signposted. Fire road is limited and used mainly for climbs.

Not much for the gravity crowd.

Facilities on site include a cafe, car park and bike shop.

Summary:
It was good but not the best.

Review:
I won't lie. i went there yesterday and despite having a really great ride on a great XC route, i have been to better. the trail was made up of a series of up and downs of singletrack broken up by the occasional firebreak type tracks. on the website for drumlanrig it said the trails had drop offs, jumps, berms etc etc. it did have a few sections where a bit of sculpting had taken place but nothing of note. dont get me wrong though it is a really great ride, loads of roots and pretty technical in places in the wet and greasy conditions. i will go there again....but not until i have tried other trails within the area. one plus of this trail was the constant changing ride through different types of woods and past lochs and big rivers etc. one negative is that you dont get to see as much of the great scenery that sits outside of the trail centre that much. ...oh and the free bike wash and no parking charges were a bonus.

Summary:
Great trail but not for adrenaline junkies.

Review:
This place has high praise indeed from the moredirt fraternity so I was keen to try it. I arrived on a glorious October day with the sun shining and the place looked spectacular. Obviously Drumlanrig is different from your average trail centre as it is a large estate with a castle attached. Mountain biking is merely a sort of estate sideline and virtually the brainchild of Rik as far as I can tell. Unfortunately Riks bike shed was closed the day I was there so I was not able to sample his legendary hospitality but the rest of the facilities were top notch. A nice café for yummies and loos that dont tempt you to do like bears do.

So off I set. I had heard that the trail was rooty and occasionally the signposting was a bit confusing and that was all I knew when I set off. Well rooty does not quite do justice to quite how rooty it was. If you cannot ride roots at the beginning of your ride you certainly will be able to at the end. The whole track is through lovely mixed woodland and not armoured at all so roots poke through at all stages and at all angles. In fact with the fallen leaves I sometimes had trouble picking out where the track went which was a refreshing change to some of the trails I have ridden.

The signposting is a bit confusing but most of that confusion is because the trail twice goes close to the escape route back to the castle so you see tempting looking trails disappear into the trees and wonder is that the escape trail or the actual trail? To which end £1 to buy a trail map is probably a good investment if you have not ridden here before.

What Drumlanrig is good at is a producing a natural feeling XC trail in a beautiful setting. I often felt like I was the first rider round with the leaves obscuring tyre tracks and no one else in sight. I can see why people rave about the place, the setting gives it a vibe unlike any other trail centre and the roots (especially when wet) make the trail a challenge for anyone. What Drumlanrig does not produce is a hit for adrenaline junkies. The trail undulates up and down through woodland so whereas there are no massive ups there are no massive descents either. It ends on a bit of a whimper too with the last km being a road ride back to the car park.

So if it is pure thrills you are after I would consider somewhere else but if you want a good XC ride in amazing woodland Drumlanrig is the place to be.

Summary:
'Naturally Awesome'

Review:
We went around this trail early on Sat morning and enjoyed every minute of it.
The weather in the week leading up to us riding the trail was terrible but having read a lot of reviews on the place saying that it is good what ever the weather we were looking forward to a muddy ride and it did not disappoint.
There had been a break in the weather so there was little or no running water on the trail and very little water logging to speak of, not that either of these thing would have made it any less enjoyable.
Being a forest trail the majority of it was cover in leaves which made it difficult, but in a fun way, to follow at times, it also hid some of the routes which were slippy as hell, but also in a fun way.
I think most of the reviews I read did it a lot of justice in the sense of it being routey so i was prepared for it and loved the challenge.
The over all feel of the trail is fantastic, it is by far the most natural feeling trail i have done so far.
The up and down hill sections are very well balanced and the fire road sections are very brief. This trail easily holds its own amongst its 7stane cousins.
And Rik is a really cool guy.
enjoy

Summary:
1st Visit

Review:
My wife and i have just come back from scotland after 5 days of mountain biking, we stayed in a village called Wanlockhead and was heading to Ae on mondy morning but saw the sign to Drumlanrig Castle which i previously heard of in a certain uk mag, stopped off just to have a look and got talking to a gent (Rik i guess) and he was really excited about the trails, bikes were out and off we went, was a nice wet winters day but what great fun, the forest really does shelter you loads, not very busy and ride back along the red/blue trail that runs along side the river was breathtaking..our long trip from Truro/Cornwall had started with a bang and the rest had a lot to live upto against this. 1 thing i would suggest would be numbered marker posts as i rode the red and my wife rode the blue as it would make meeting easier, other than that a fantastoic place. Facilities were a little limited as it is mid winter but the bikewash was the best we experienced. Anyone visiting Scotland must make time for this place.