All Enduro, ballater

Distance 45.9km (28.5 miles) Climbing 1,425m (4,675ft) Time 3hrs 30mins to 5hrs

Route summary A selection of varied – but all exciting – loops starting from Ballater, enabling you to customise the ride to your own requirements by removing or adding runs as you prefer

Start/ inish Ballater car park (grid ref NO 369/957, postcode AB35 5QQ)

1

Go left on the main road (Bridge St) then right on Station Square, joining the Deeside Way cycle path. After 4km, after the Cheese Co o ces, cross the road into Cambus O’May (Forest Trails) by a bus stop. Take the first forest track on the right and continue uphill. Pass some overhead electricity cables and go through a silver gate. Turn right onto some singletrack back under the cables.

2

Continue uphill to some rock slabs and go right, downhill. Follow the track left, back uphill, then right onto ‘Roller Coaster’. Head over the road, onto the forest track on the left. Keep left to arrive at, and cross, the road to Burn O’Vat car park. Join the path to the right of the hut, which heads uphill, and take a left at the T-junction. Follow the cables and rejoin the earlier track.

3

Keep ahead, following the overhead cables, to a clearing/forest-track T-junction. Join a smaller track ahead, bearing left. Continue on this, keeping left and descending to the road. Rejoin the Deeside cycle path, back towards Ballater. After 2km, make a right at the road crossing, joining the A93, then shortly after, go left on the B972 (towards Braemar).

4

After 800m, turn sharply right at the layby, onto a forest track. Continue for 2km, climbing and keeping left, to the radar masts. Bear right, past a storage unit, onto the technical ‘Mastermind’ trail. At the end, continue on the forest track to the road and rejoin the Deeside Way back to Ballater. Continue through the centre, over the bridge and turn right on the B976 (again, towards Braemar).

5

After 1km, turn left when the road bears right, then immediately left again onto a track (not the road to Glen Muick). Keep ahead at a track crossing, make a sharp left, bear right at a fork and follow this out of the trees, uphill. After a sharp right, go left at the fork towards Craig Vallich’s summit. Keep right at the fork (left leads to the peak).

6

Follow the trail along the top. After it bears right, cruise downhill, keeping left at the fork to stay along the ridgetop. Climb to Pannanich Hill and stay right as you start to descend, passing over another summit and following the singletrack along the ridgetop. Be cautious towards the end on the rock slabs, and look out for the stones that mark the trail.

7

Ride through some trees, down the field’s edge and left through a gate onto some singletrack, keeping right beside a fence. Go left on the tarmac, back to the bridge. Head right to finish – or see an alternative option below.

Craig Coillich: After 2.5km, go left on a track into Pannanich Forest and follow this trail uphill. Keep going left until you reach the top of Craig Coillich, by the radar mast. There are a few descents back down from here. Generally, the easier/blue-graded ones are on the left and the technical/black-graded are ahead and right.