What are your top 3 trail centres? « Singletrack Forum.

Wales also deservedly well represented, but they’ve got nothing on ours

For what it’s worth, mine would be:

1) Innerleithen

2) Golspie (No, Laggan. No, Balblair. No,  No, Golspie!)

3) No top 3 would be complete without the mighty Glentress.

Actually, nailing it down to a top 3 is really tricky, as you can see from the debating around point 2! Feel bad leaving out Ae given the immense Omega Man descent, especially when you ride the Shredder first.

Mabie also offers a great day out in terms of just enjoyable, no pressure riding – challenging at times, but nothing like the sketchier black stuff at Laggan and Golspie.

Kirroughtree is also a beautiful loop and one of the most flowing man made trails I’ve ever ridden, if not the most. I can’t forget Drumlanrig either – so natural feeling, super rooty at times and you also have the beautiful castle to look at (hint: Spring is an excellent time to visit with all the lambs jumping about in the fields in the approach to the castle).

It all depends what you want to do I suppose. Trying to decide a “best” is a bit pointless actually. They’re all great, it just depends what you feel like.

Sweet Mary I want to get out and ride now!

Disclaimer: I’m still to ride the XC trails at Nevis Range and also need to hit Learnie Red Rock so can’t count them, but they do look great. Plenty more I haven’t mentioned too…

Original image by Chris Yunker

Ah, Edinburgh. We’re thrilled to see the perennial favourite retain it’s crown as Favourite UK City for the 12th year running, and more than a little proud it continues to beat big sister London yet again – not to mention some of the UK’s other fantastic cities.

If you voted, a sincere thank you. If you’ve never been, then you should visit.

Here’s a link to the original article, but whilst you’re there, why not check out The Guardian’s recommendations for the Top 10 Edinburgh Day Trips and it’s opinion of the Top 10 Hotels.

Link to original here.

Just picked up on a reallly useful thread going on over at the SingleTrackWorld forum about which Munros are best for mountain biking. So many to choose from and loads I’d never heard of, so if you want to try riding somewhere new (and that is actually a real mountain!) this is a great place to start. 

Original here.

Nice piece in the New York Times today about a poetry fan’s impulsive trip to Luing having read Don Paterson’s poem Landing Light.

…and yet there I was, clawing my way through the wet and lichen-encrusted tangle on a Scottish hillside, with limbs of bracken swatting me in the face and my Wellington boots failing to get a foothold, worried that I was about to face-plant into a pudding of aromatic Hebridean ooze, because of 24 lines of verse.

Click through to read the article.

Just seen this fantastic image of climbing pro Graeme Ettle scaling the “In Pin” on the Cuillins in Skye. More pics here:

Conquering the In Pin: Intrepid climber reaches the summit of Britain’s most Inaccessible Pinnacle | Mail Online.

via Dirt TV: AE Forest Scotland on Vimeo.

Simmonds at Word Cup DH in Fort William, Scotland – photo by dingus – Pinkbike.com.

This time it’s the legendary Danny MacAskill on the Isle Of Skye.