A Little More Detail
This is where we come in at Singletrack Safari – we know all of these centres well and have ridden every inch of the trails, so we have constructed a "highlights week", which we can tailor to the group's preferences and abilities, to ensure that you are guaranteed to have the best time possible and hit all the most sumptuous singletrack in a the course of a week. You'll get to ride for at least 5 days during the week, and we will guide and support you most of the time – although this might not always be necessary depending on the options you choose - and we will always be on hand with help and advice.
We meet you at Manchester Airport Station, which is easy to reach from most parts of the UK, and a short trip from the vibrant city centre if there are other riders to wait for – we can look after your bike and bags for you. We'll then transfer you directly to the first of our two base locations for the week – Dalbeattie, handily located to cover the western end of this fabulous riding area – and allowing us to ride from the door on at least one occasion. The town is quite small, but has a selection of places to eat and drink, and is not far from Dumfries if a visit to a bike shop, or a more lively evening out is in order! We'll stay in nice local hotel accommodation, where you'll receive a warm welcome from the local staff.
The town is well known for its own rocky trail centre and is just up the road from Mabie with it twisting woodland singletrack and ferocious Dark Side North Shore trails. A short drive west takes us towards the wild country epic route at Glentrool, and the utterly amazing Kirroughtree. With its flowing and satisfying singletrack, this centre is home to the reknowned "McMoab" – and is definitely our favourite man-made trail in all of Scotland.
Something A Little Different
A quick trip in the other direction we are in easy reach of Ae Forest, which features some great confidence inspiring technical sections and grin-inducing downhill options. Drumlanrig, set in the grounds of the famous Castle is not an official Stane, but offers a very different riding experience altogether – as these are pretty much maintained natural trails, and feature a lot of roots to keep you on your toes!
Towards the English Border is Newcastleton, which in addition to it's singletrack loops, also features the Cross Border Trail which links across to Kielder south of the border in England, which itself features several very challenging singletrack routes and extensive sections of North Shore.
The Final Stretch
For the final few days we shift ourselves north east, and settle into another small hotel in the beautiful town of Peebles, which has some fantastic shops, plus lots of places to eat and drink. The town is right on the doorstep of the internationally famed Glentress, where we have designed one of our "Escape the Centre" routes which we call the Bruised Newspaper – it's Black, Blue and Red all over the forest! Rather than just blindly following one of the prescribed routes we've linked together a whole host of the best sections of singletrack into a fantastic days riding.
Just along the road is Innerleithen, which has one of the most enjoyable descents you'll ever come across anywhere - it gets nearly everyone hollering and whooping with joy. The finale is the infamous Caddon Bank– a set of increasingly large drop offs which are more forgiving than their intimidating appearance suggests! Don't worry – there's an easier option too!
To the south lies Jedburgh Forest – again, not an official "Stane", but something very special indeed – here it's possible to ride some great natural singletrack, with regular opportunities for short-cuts which allow us to tailor a route of anything upto 40km down to as little as 5km – although hopefully your legs will get you a little further out into the amazing Cheviot Hills landscape a little further than that!
