Newcastleton & The Grapes Hotel
As you progress, you skirt around the edge of a
quarry with the option to ride down a v.v.steep drop in (i'd say about 10/15m
long) with a sharp right turn immediately at the bottom or the option of
crashing into a pond.
...The problem at
the moment with Newcastleton is that the trail surface requires some serious
bedding in. It is quite hard work to ride over and does not inspire confidence /
offer much grip for the descents; although Amanda had a really good
time!
Newcastleton - the newest of the 7 Stanes - is
certainly a unique
place. It is way out in
the sticks, about 2 hours in all south of
Edinburgh. The rain was horizontal and the
wind was howling, but
after the drive down
the weather was not going to deter us!
The red begins at the top of the main
downhill. V.nice single track
from the
outset. Swoops and turns, bridges and little jumps for a
long, long way down (I think 3km in all).
The descent is punctuated
by many a little
up hill burst - not too much effort so long as you
keep your momentum up and rhythm going.
After this long downhill
there is a couple
of km on fire road before continuing the next
singletrack section. This plunges a little
further down before a
reasonably short steep
climb. As you progress, you skirt around the
edge of a quarry with the option to ride
down a v.v.steep drop in
(i'd say about
10/15m long) with a sharp right turn immediately at
the bottom or the option of crashing into a
pond. With the kind of
rain we were
experiencing we decided the drop in was not an option!
From hereon the trail is sweet for the last
few km back to base and
flows very
nicely.
The problem at the moment with
Newcastleton is that the trail
surface
requires some serious bedding in. It is quite hard work to
ride over and does not inspire confidence /
offer much grip for the
descents; although
Amanda had a really good time! I reckon in time
this problem will be overcome, however in
the mean while it might
just annoy you a
little bit. We also thought that the trail was not
really long enough to warrant the drive down
there for what exists.
I'd suggest if you go
down there to incorporate an epic in around
Kielder Forest at the same time. It so
happens that the Reivers C2C
off road route
goes right through the Newcastleton project giving
easy off road access to the rest of Kielder
Forest.
Finally, if you take the trip
there, we can thoroughly
recommend 'The
Grapes Hotel' on the main sq. in Newcastleton
village. The landlord and staff went out of
their way to make us
welcome and served up a
delicious well deserved dinner. They also
have multi-occupancy rooms with bike storage
and breakfast incl.
working out at 20quid
per head. From here, most of the 7 stanes are
within an hour, so could be worth
considering for a winter weekend.
All
in all, we had a great day!
All in all,
we had a great day!
KJ
Posted: Thu - September 30, 2004 at 09:26 AM