Mountain Biking
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pro, The Tweed Valley has something for everyone. Glentress is the biggest and best trail centre in the UK. It’s easy and it’s free (other than £3/day parking). Young, old, beginner or expert, everybody is there to have a good time. It’s one of those places where it is difficult to get the smile off your face once you have given it a go.
As well as Glentress we have forest trails, Innerleithen, some great family rides and routes and some awesome multi-day rides. Is the Tweed Valley the centre of excellence for mountain biking in the UK? Come and see for yourself.
Where do we start?
We live here, build trails here and bike here, so don’t be afraid to ask. We are happy to help and point you in the right direction.
We can organise demo hire and bike hire with bikes available for all ages and abilities – from kiddies bikes to £5K+ full suspension race machines.
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, please have a try of a days guiding/tuition or a morning or afternoon lessons at MB7, Dirtschool or Hub Essentials. Everybody can ride a bike, or so I thought? These guys and girls will show you how to really ride a mountain bike and get the most from your bike and your stay. No matter whether you are a beginner or an expert, we highly recommend a morning, afternoon or days tuition for all levels to show you the best of what the Tweed Valley has to offer or a trick or two to ensure you get the most from the trails and your bike.
If you’re anything like us you will always be maintaining, upgrading or fettling with your bikes. We can organise a maintenance session or classes during your stay, These come highly recommended and are a great way to learn how to set the bike up correctly for the downhill or XC trails or even just knowing how to mend a puncture when out on the trails.
If you have been out all day on the bike and just want a beer and to put your feet up, the last thing you’re thinking about is servicing the bike for tomorrow. How about letting somebody else do it? We can arrange for evening bike servicing so you know the bike will be in pristine condition when you head out the next day.
The house is approximately 750m from the Innerleithen downhill bike park and the Traquair XC trails.
INNERLEITHEN is renowned for its downhill routes. There are currently four of them – all Bike Park Extreme grade – and the uplift service runs on various weekends. Give Tally from UpliftScotland a call to book your places 07709 144299.
The Matador – Tricky rock steps, S bends, 8ft-rock drop, nadgery rock garden, rock chute, doubles, 6ft rock drop, rock fly-off, tabletops, bus stops. bombhole and berms.
Cresta Run – Built by hand in classic ‘Inners’ style – natural, tight, technical and rooty. Rutted bumps, dips steep S-turns, fast and flowing zig zagging steeply down through the trees. Rooty, tight and frequently off-camber, carrying a lot of speed through here is a challenge even in the dry. A tricky step drops you across a bridleway and into a final more open but rutted section of steep sweeping turns down to the finish. In a word – awesome.
Gold Run – Similar in nature to the Cresta Run, this trail is a cracker! Starting wide and fast, a sweeping right hander soon fires you into a flowing, steep, rooty section. Skipping through a dyke the trail skirts around the side of the top quarry spitting you across the upper road and into the darkness. Soak up the bumps and roots, avoid the trees then take a hard right into another rooty, flowing, steep section. Pick your line wisely! Back into the trees, the gradient mellows but the trail remains tricky with often multiple lines to go at. More rooty, off-camber loveliness awaits, before the trail steepens and launches you down a loose rocky drop to the lower road.
Make or Brake – Voted one of MBR magazine’s top 10 descents in the country, this trail is totally different in character from the natural tracks at Innerleithen. It’s wide and fast, stacked full of jumps, drops and huge flowing berms – big grins guaranteed! Over 25 jumps and 10 big rollers are packed into the next section, which dives and weaves down the open hill through big ‘g-outs’ and bermed corners. Tabletops, doubles, hip jumps, step-ups and step-downs all feature. A little way down, there’s an optional section, Diks Dinnerparty. Here the jumps are bigger still and upramps even steeper. Enjoy! Down a rock chute and over a couple of smaller jumps you soon pick up speed. Two small rock drops fly quickly by then it’s into a big 180 turn, through some massive bombholes, then three doubles back to back. From here, things can get ridiculously quick over several wide step-downs, the last of which fires you into a big tabletop. Through two turns, then a couple more rock steps follow. Off the brakes here, pedal hard and you’ll clear a step down into a flippin’ huge bombhole, which spits you out over two more tabletops. Two final turns, a couple of jumps and you’ve made it to the finish!
Traquair XC – The black-graded route also starts and ends here. It is well worth the long climb to the top of the Minch Moor (570m). The fast descent has everything from fast flowing singletrack to the rock garden at Plora Craig to the bomb holes and rock drops of Caddon bank.
Its not just the man made stuff though, there are natural routes all over the place, just waiting to be found, join the southern upland way or spend some time honing your skills and sessioning the hill.
Glentress is 3 miles away and offers something for everybody. For the beginner, the Skills Loop has differently graded sections to help you get started. Once you’re ready for the next step, the Blue Route offers ‘real’ mountain biking, but with none of the scary stuff found on the harder routes.
The Red Route boasts some fine singletrack climbs as well as massive, fast descents with jumps and berms in good measure.
The black trail provides an epic ride. It starts from the valley bottom, climbs to Dunslair Heights (600m) and is testing, steep and often on the gnarly side. Elevated North Shore wooden sections and rocky chutes add yet more challenge, and the final descent has a real sting in the tail.
Packed full of advanced level features, the extreme graded Freeride Park is an ideal spot for riders looking to push their skill levels, style it up, learn new tricks or just hang out and ride with friends. The Essentials trail in the park has been built with novice freeriders firmly in mind.
Away from the trail centres there is some fantastic natural trails just waiting to be found and ridden. Stay for longer than a couple of days and try out some of these.
Gypsy Glen is an old drovers road to the south of Peebles and offers something different to the centres at Glentress and Innerleithen. There are lots of options but we would recommend heading along to Cardrona forest and then up to Birks Hill before the long big grin descent into Peebles. You might need your brakes for a couple of closed gates but otherwise don’t touch them. Quick fill up in Peebles or the Hub and back to Cardrona forest or Glentrail. Its good! check Bikefax for a good route map.
Rocky is one of a group of trails used by the locals. They are located to the North East of the village. Head out of Glentrail and head East on the High Street. When you reach Leithen Road take a left and head North for 3/4mile. After the white house take a right and head across over the stone bridge and Leithen water. From here make your way up and keep your eyes peeled for some of the great natural trails. Once on the forestry road head north again until you are level with the Golf course and then head up the path to Walkerburn or the forestry road which takes you up the hill. Once on the top road, just explore! there are trails everywhere, make sure you take your camera.
