Mushroom Pie, Glentress Mountain Biking

Glentress Forest is a mountain biking Mecca deep in the heart of the stunning Tweed Valley. The biking experience here includes Green, Blue, Red or Black graded trails, as well as a magnificent multi-graded free-ride area. In the unlikely event that Glentress fails to meet your thirst for biking exhilaration, you are only a short hop from Innerleithen's famous Red Bull down-hill and cross country trails.The area offers a rich variety of things to do with the small Borders towns of Peebles and Innerleithen the ideal base for visitors, but don't just take our word for it, come and experience it for yourself, you won't be disappointed !


The Red Route (Red)

The red route at just over 19 km is probably the most popular with the mountain bike fraternity. This is a challenging but great fun trail with a real emphasis on fun. It holds many real treats with some fast flowing singletrack, wooded trails through dense forest, and some exhilarating stretches with great double jumps for those who like to take to the air.

After some ups, and downs and a magnificent ride, you will climb up through "Sleepy Hollow" to reach one of the forests many view points. The Observatory on Caresman Hill has a magnificent view overlooking the stunning Tweed Valley. This is a great place to sit, collect your thoughts and your composure, and re-group. You can then enjoy the exhilaration of the next section that offers drop offs, jumps, moguls and some fantastic burms before reaching the next singletrack sections. “Spooky Wood” descent has to be one of the best in the world for fun factor.

Other Trails:

Glentress V Trail (Black)
This is a 30km black grade trail that has been voted the best trail in Britain. Described as "tough, steep, technical, long but loads of fun", this is an exciting trail not for the faint hearted. Some of the real enthusiastic, and fit, have been reported to do it in around an hour and a half, but "normal" folks can expect to take somewhere between three and four hours. It certainly isn't a novice track. The track takes you through a climb to one of the highest view points in the forest, and then a descend down through "Britney Spears" . Another short but steep climb to The Mast and then a fast drop towards the infamous Boundary Trail. Here you will find rough singletrack with jumps, big berms and some drop offs. On to the quarry section to the steep descent of Deliverance. Redemption is the climb back up and this will really test your stamina. There are often new features built into new parts of the trails here so always plenty to test your technical ability to the full.

It doesn't end there, you will continue through some very technical, narrow and exhilarating singletrack back to Peel Centrefor a well deserved treat. It's said that you'll not get a riding experience like it anywhere else. The V Trail is quite unique.


Free Ride Park
This is where you can take to the air with ease and practice those double jumps before hitting the trails. The free ride areas can be found near the Buzzards Nest car park about half way up the main forest road, all grades are only about one mile in length but they are magnificent for practicing. You might want to do a loop before heading onto the trails, or you might want to spend the day practicing those “aerials or drop offs”, whatever you do you'll have a blast.

"Whether you’ve ridden everywhere or nowhere, Glentress has something for you. Expert or complete beginner? – Glentress has trails for all abilities, in all styles from sweet flowing singletrack to monster berms and jumps. Ride them all this year and decide which is your favourite.


The Green Route
The fabulously modeled Green Route is a must for the family, its a huge favorite already with cyclists of all ability. The trail is a testament to how serious the Forestry Commission Scotland are about investment into this area, it has been superbly modeled in a fantastic part of the forest to create an excellent novice/family trail.

For the hard core enthusiasts, why not do a quick run around the green loop after the climb from "Janet's Brae", just as an extra warm up before climbing on up the Black or Red routes.