7stanes

The 7stanes are seven mountain biking centres spanning the south of Scotland, from the heart of the Scottish Borders to Dumfries and Galloway. They are on Forestry Commission land and along with schemes in Wales are regarded as the benchmark by which further trails in the UK should be developed. They are known as the 7stanes because each venue features a 'stane' (Scots for stone), created by artist Gordon Young, somewhere along the forest trails.

The 7stanes:

The trails use the Cyclists' Touring Club off-road trail grades with two additional categories, one called Bike Park and the other Forest Road and similar.

Located in Galloway. Glentrool includes one 58 km road-based route (the only wholly road-based route in the 7stanes) one 9 km blue-graded route, and two green-graded routes (6 km and 14 km).Nearest bike shops are Brakehut open seasonally who hire bikes to Glentrool and Kirkcowan Cycles open year round and out of hours by appointment.

Located near Newton Stewart. Kirroughtree features green, blue, red and black trails as well as a skills area for practising mountain biking techniques. Winner of MBR Trail of the Year in 2010, the trails are located within an officially designated Dark Sky Park area. Nearest bike shops are Brakepad (at trail start) open seasonally with bike hire and Kirkcowan Cycles open year round for sales and repairs. Courtyard Cycle Hire also at Kirkcowan offer cycle hire all year round. The Kirroughtree trail centre is currently under development with a new restaurant and bike shop/hire centre being planned which will offer customers year round service rather than the current seasonal opening if any company will take it on. Showers and other facilities will also be included. This facility is due to be completed by Autumn 2013 or 2014.

Located near Dalbeattie. This rocky site features a green-grade and blue-graded trail, along with a red-graded trail with optional black-graded sections. These include The Slab, a challenging steep granite rock. Nearest bike shops are Next Level Bikes, Castle Douglas Cycle Centre and MPG Cycles in Dalbeattie

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Wikipedia