Southern uplands way rideable?

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Single Speed George
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Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by Single Speed George »

So I have been thinking about what to do this year (other than Annapurna in October with eve) and came across the southern uplands way whilst ski touring a few weeks ago . is it all manageable as a bike pack over easter ? How boggy is it ??? As apparently too boggy to bike bits but that's half the fun right ? So easter is 4 days and its only 200miles so that's 50 miles a day so sounds fine on paper .... Thoughts ?
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Ray Young
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by Ray Young »

I only know it from Moffat going eastwards and you should be fine. To the west of Moffat though there are some boggy bits that the SUW rangers would rather you didn't ride. They were supposed to be making public an alternative to these bits but I don't think they ever materialised unless someone knows different. I am led to believe the far western and eastern bits are through farm land. I think it's doable over four days but still quite an undertaking.
deft punk
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by deft punk »

I've did most of it in stages & it should go. Galloway is famous for having bogs & baby's heads all over the shop, but with the right mindset even these poor show bits are quite fun(ny).

Take maps/printouts for the obvious diversions when inevitably decide you can't be arsed pushing/carrying/dragging up a boggy hill just to push/carry/drag back down the other side for the umpteenth time.
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fatbikephil
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by fatbikephil »

West of Moffat to Glentrool forest is fecking horrible - avoid at all costs. Took me 2 hrs to do the first 10k west of Moffat a couple of years ago - path totally blootered by windblow and lots of bogs. The bit over Lowther hill is brutal - another full on death march with most of the descent on the radar station access road. Over Ben Brack its more of the same with only a fine sculpture at the summit to make it worthwhile.There are the odd nice bits like through Glentrool forest and nearer to Stranraer but all of the moorland sections are grim.

Ray I'm surprised that SUW rangers are saying for bikes not too use it as the problem with the west section is that no-ones using it and a lot of the trails have overgrown or dissapeared into the bog. No-one is maintaining it and the whole route looks like its been pretty much abandoned.

George - bit of map research will lead you to some reasonable alternatives. A few guide companies use a route taking in the various trail centres along there (Kirroughtree, Mabie and Ae). Near where the SUW leaves the back road out of Moffat there is now a signed cycle route to Ae on forest roads. (This is heading west ie the wrong way for the normal SUW walker) I plotted and alternative route west through Ae, up past Kettleton Byre bothy to Durisdeer, Enterkin pass to Wanlock head, SUW and more double track to Sanquar, back road / forest road to the north of the SUW joining it a Polskeoch bothy, ROW south west to Lorg then roads to St. Johns town of Dalry, back road to Clatteringshaws loch, SUW to Glentrool village thereafter mainly on the SUW but plenty of road or forest track alternatives.

I plan to do a chunk of the above at the end of March to meet up with my folks who will be holidaying near to Gatehouse of fleet. One of my many projects is to ride and define a better SUW route west to east for bikepacking
padonbike
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by padonbike »

Thanks HTrider. Got an imminent ride planned on SUW. Was either going East from Kirkcudbright to Polskeoch or West from KKB to Beehive. Having read your post I'll scrap the plan to go East! Cheers :roll:
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Ray Young
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by Ray Young »

Official website, http://www.southernuplandway.gov.uk

Taken from the above,
" Can we use mountain bikes?

Many sections of the Way are excellent for mountain biking with a wide range of tracks from forest roads to singletrack. However other areas are unsurfaced track over grassy hillsides. Due to the prevailing weather conditions in southern Scotland and the fact that much of the area is peat bog these areas often become so muddy that it is not possible to cycle them. This is very weather dependant so areas that might be easy to ride in the winter when the ground is frozen are impassable over the summer and autumn.

We are currently working on improving the Way for Cyclists and also producing a guide to riding the Southern Upland Way with advice on which areas can be ridden and alternative routes for areas that are impassable. For more information please contact one of the Rangers."

This website has not been updated for at least four or five years because I too planned on riding it a while ago and have since changed my mind as I think there are better more accessible routes out there for bike packing.
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thenorthwind
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by thenorthwind »

Interesting, I was having very similar thoughts recently. I'm trying to work out what this year's "thing" is going to be too, and for a few years now I've wondered about doing a coast to coast across "the wide bit that no-one goes to." I even got as far as looking at maps recently and came across the southern upland way, and wondered whether it was ridable. So a bit of a bookmark so I know thew bits to avoid!
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by rudedog »

We did it about 5 years back and while most of it is rideable, I'd agree with Ray that there are much better alternatives around for bikepacking - the Cairngorms loops, West Highland way and Capital Trail are all very accessible and with some really good riding and scenery - howerver, if your looking for something remote and less traveled then its not a bad route. I did a bit of write up on the STW bike and bivvy thread for the first section from Portpatrick to St Johns which I've cut and pasted here :

Portpatrick to Stranraer

Portpatrick is a cracking wee fishing village and well worthy of a visit in its own right. The route starts with some steps up from below the Portpatrick Hotel up to the cliff top - they aren't too steep so you can push the bike up with out too much trouble and would be ride-able for some - there are some nice views of the picturesque village below from here. After that the route follows the cliffs and drops down in to a couple of bays where you'll need to carry you're bike as its loose stoney foreshore - its a lovely stretch of the route in terms of scenery but hard going where you need to carry the bike. If you've got a lot of gear and can't shoulder your bike, you could miss this bit out and go the road way out of Portpatrick, taking a left just outside the village and you'll pick up the SUW at the turning for Killantringan lighthouse. After that its all rideable (mostly farm road) to Stranraer with a nice but fairly short section of singletrack roughly halfway where you can also find one of the 'kists' (hidden containers with a different type of coin placed at various locations along the route).

Stranraer to New Luce
Practically all rideable - Just outside Castle Kennedy village and Gardens, you pick up the road to New Luce here, as you start the climb, there's a short section of SUW which goes off to the right, its fairly steep and not much fun as it takes you through a muddy/tussocky cattle field so can easily be missed out (if traveling with gear) as it joins back to the road a little bit further up. At the top of the hill, the route heads off to the right toward Glenwhan moor where there's a nice section of singletrack nearly all the way the luce valley, then a fairly steep drop down to the railway line - after that, its mostly rideable until you clear the trees and can cycle over the river and up a short but steep grassy hill back to the road. You can take a short detour into the Village of New Luce here, there is a (very) small shop and a pub with a beer garden next to the river which made a nice stop for us.

New Luce to Bargrennan

Theres a bit of a climb out of New Luce on farm track, the route takes you past some ancient caves/burial Cairns and then links on to road for a short bit before going totally off road through fields/bogs just north of Balmurrie farm. This section was a PITA - there is no obvious trail at this point, but there are wooden waymarkers (sometimes hard to spot) every few hundred meters to keep you on course. You'll need to push your bike as its almost totaly unrideable for just over a mile and goes through a peatbog which you'll get wet feet from without appropriate footwear. After you come through the fields the trail is visible again and cuts through a wooded section for a few miles - its hard going again here as the trail is boggy and muddy but soon improves to half decent singletrack as you get closer to Laganngarn where the Beehive bothy is situated. Its a nice wooded bothy but no fireplace. The single track continues on past some interesting ancient christian standing stones and picks up forest fire road soon after. Your not on the fire road for long before the SUW goes off up a fairly steep hill but we skipped this and stuck to the fire road which just goes round the hill. From here on its plain sailing all the way to Bargrennan mosty farm/back roads - theres a couple of short sections of which take you off the road as you get closer to Bargrennan but they aren't great for riding and easy to skip. Theres a pub at Bargrennan which does decent food, and a campsite with shop. Theres loads of good spots in the woods here though if you are camping - we found a cracking spot on the shore of Loch Trool, not far from the old Caldons campsite which is now abandoned.

Bargrennan to Dalry

They changed the trail out of Bargrennan to Loch Trool a few years back which you might need to bear in mind if your using an old map. We missed this bit out as we'd been in the pub for a couple and were camping at Loch Trool so just headed up the fire road - it looked like half decent forest single track from what we saw though. The forest road way takes you passed the 7 Stanes trail centre cafe which serves sandwiches and has an outside tap for refilling water. Once you get to Loch Trool, if you have a lot of gear, I'd advise sticking to the forest road north of the loch which leads to the car park at the base of Bruces monument . We didn't do this and followed the SUW round the south side of the Loch and it was really tough going for the lads laden with gear. Lots of really steep sections, steps etc but probably mostly rideable and good fun without the gear - some good gnarly/technical descents. You also pass the battleground where Robet the Bruce defeated an English force ten times his size which was quite interesting to read about (there is a big information sign at the spot). Once you clear Loch Trool, there route joins the Glen Trool 7 stanes purple route or 'big country trail'. You join at the start of a steep climb on forest road with some great views of the Galloway hills at the top. The forest road continues on for a good while passed Loch Dee where you'll find the Glentrool 'stane' and the Whitelaggan bothy (decent stone built with fire) and on to Clatteringshaws Loch. Just north of the Loch, the SUW leaves the fire road and goes over a few hills, we missed this section as we were running short on time and just stuck to the forest road and then on to back roads which took us over a hill and down to the Ken valley and St Johns Town of Dalry where we had a couple more pints and pub tea before being collected.
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fatbikephil
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by fatbikephil »

Ray Young wrote:Official website, http://www.southernuplandway.gov.uk

Taken from the above,
" Can we use mountain bikes?

Many sections of the Way are excellent for mountain biking with a wide range of tracks from forest roads to singletrack. However other areas are unsurfaced track over grassy hillsides. Due to the prevailing weather conditions in southern Scotland and the fact that much of the area is peat bog these areas often become so muddy that it is not possible to cycle them. This is very weather dependant so areas that might be easy to ride in the winter when the ground is frozen are impassable over the summer and autumn.

We are currently working on improving the Way for Cyclists and also producing a guide to riding the Southern Upland Way with advice on which areas can be ridden and alternative routes for areas that are impassable. For more information please contact one of the Rangers."

This website has not been updated for at least four or five years because I too planned on riding it a while ago and have since changed my mind as I think there are better more accessible routes out there for bike packing.
Fair comment - what they are saying is "its sh**e for bikes" not that you can't use them!
Image
D&G decimated their ranger service a couple of years ago so its little wonder there has been no updates on the website recently. In an unreal / ideal world it would be great if they invested in the route as it could be a cracker. These sculptures (there is another on the hill opposite) went in about 10 years ago when they had a real push to promote the way and did a fair bit of path work at the same time but all that seems to have been for nothing.....
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Single Speed George
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by Single Speed George »

chears guys might just do the pennine bridleway then as basically takes me home and cheep train to the start haha .... a while till easter anyway , doo need to start getting out this season beeing verry lazy !
Alan63
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by Alan63 »

Following the comments with interest. Was planning a wee overnighter to Brattleburn from Moffat. Suddenly it doesn't sound too appealing.
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fatbikephil
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by fatbikephil »

Alan63 wrote:Following the comments with interest. Was planning a wee overnighter to Brattleburn from Moffat. Suddenly it doesn't sound too appealing.
There are a load of wind turbines in that forest now including the access tracks none of which are shown on OS maps. The aerial photos on bing maps do show them and its possible to use them to access brattleburn without too much bother. Or you could go up via the access track to Mosshope. Failing that there is a nice route through Ae from Moffat which will get you to either Kettleton Byre or Burleywag bothies
rudedog
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by rudedog »

We changed the route a bit around this section as we wanted to take in some of the trails of Drumlanrig and Ae forest, they were just starting work on the Windfarm between Ae and Moffat then and the place was a right mess.
golfcurry
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by golfcurry »

Here's the route we took in october 2017 over 4 days, as has been mentioned the west side of the SUW is very hard going, we amended the route as we went after seeing it was completely boggy and unrideable on large hillsides.
We diverted to AE between sanquhar and moffat which turned out to be a good choice.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1209101937

https://www.strava.com/activities/1210538030

https://www.strava.com/activities/1212230251

https://www.strava.com/activities/1213376602
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fatbikephil
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by fatbikephil »

Good one - the section over the Sanquar was brutal when I did it in reverse 3 years back. Very wise move missing out Lowther hill....
rudedog
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Re: Southern uplands way rideable?

Post by rudedog »

Pretty much the same route we took except we made the mistake of staying on the SUW from chalk memorial bothy down into Sanquhar instead of taking the forest road - we thought it would be a decent descent but turned out to be classic Galloway bogfest

4 days is a damn good effort considering the terrain, took us nearly 6!
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