7 Stanes Kirroughtree Red Trail Mountain Biking Disaster

I managed to get out on my bike again this week despite the weather and had a great, but damp, ride around the 17 km red trail at Kirroughtree, near Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway, just in the South West of Scotland.

The trail itself, dubbed The Twister by its creators, is similar to Drumlanrig in that it’s not that man-made and just follows an undulating – sometimes very undulating – path through an endless forest, but it’s a lot less technical and a lot more fast than the aforementioned Drumlanrig root-fest. You can get some speed up over the rollercoaster style single-track only to be thrown into the air by an unexpected rock formation. There’s some tricky little rock-chutes dotted around the place and some lung-busting climbs.

A disaster befell us, however, when my rear derailleur decided to detach itself from my bike! I’ve no idea how it happened but the hanger which attaches the derailleur to the bike snapped leaving me with no pedal power. I managed to remove the chain but couldn’t rig it up even as a single-speed so I had to push the remainder of the way! Luckily I could free-wheel so I still got to enjoy the downhills!

Kirroughtree is a great trail for those days you just want to go out and belt it round without too much thought about the technical side of riding. There are some sections that’ll have you slowing down but most of the time your legs will be pumping as you duck and weave through some of the best singletrack in the south west of Scotland.

Next time, the 31km black version, Kirroughtree Black Craigs….