Aaaah, ooooh, mmmmm: Some highlights of the Kirroughtree trails

OK, it’s official. The trail builders of Scotland’s 7stanes project never, ever sleep. It only seems to be ten minutes since FC Scotland announced the opening of the Traquair XC trail at Innerleithen, and now here it is announcing the launch of a whole new centre complete with four routes totalling 43km.

The new centre is at Kirroughtree Forest in Dumfries and Galloway. The four currently-open routes are graded, ski-style, from green to black, offering something for all skill levels. All the loops start at the Kirroughtree visitor centre and can be combined into longer routes.

So what’s there? Kicking off at the easy end, Bargaly Wood (green) is 6km long and said to be ideal for beginners and families. It should take between 30 minutes and an hour and a half to finish. Moving up a level, the 8km Larg Hill trail (blue) could take a couple of hours, plus an optional extra 4km. Getting into the serious stuff, the Twister (red) is described as “14km of mixed singletrack and fire road with
drop-offs, berms and swoopy singletrack.” That’s another two-hour loop. And finally there’s Black Craigs (er, black), a 15km add-on to the Twister trail including “very difficult” riding – drops, chutes and a huge exposed granite sheet christened McMoab. You can ride along the very top of it on a section of trail called, appropriately enough, Granite Ridge.

Still to come this year is a new centre at Newcastleton and new routes in Glentrool Forest, Galloway and Ae Forest, Dumfries. Want to know more? Visit www.7stanes.gov.uk.