Dunkeld, Scotland

Distance 20.5km (12.7 miles) Climbing 830m (2,723ft) Time 2hrs to 3hrs 30mins

Route summary A wonderful, technical route all around the lovely town of Dunkeld, providing superb enduro-style riding, with as much (or as little) as you can manage

Start/ inish Dunkeld north car park (postcode: PH8 0AQ, grid ref: NO 028/425)

1

Turn left out of the car park, head into town and go left over the bridge. Take the next left, signed ‘Birnam Services’. After 500m, opposite the grand gates to a hotel on the left, turn right on Birnam Glen (dead-end road). Pass under a bridge then go left up to the station car park.

2

Continue on the cycle path beside the A9, bearing right along the B867, to a layby. Go right through the gate. Pass under the railway bridge and turn left on a track, climbing towards the remains of Rohallion Castle.

3

Keep bearing left at the forks in this trail and continue uphill. After a narrow track (your return route) crosses it, go up the (zig-zag) steps. The path then continues to King’s Seat, but you should bear o left and left again, to a rocky viewpoint. The trail drops steeply o the back here.

4

Follow this obvious track, crossing where you ascended earlier and continuing downhill to an old quarry. Join the doubletrack but immediately bear o right on some singletrack, keeping ahead/right, back to the layby parking and return to Dunkeld the way you came.

5

Go through Dunkeld and turn right o the main road, signed to Butterstone, on the A923. Bear left after 200m on a lane with a post box and a white house on the corner. Keep ahead at the track crossing (with a car park on the left) on a forest track. Go left at a fork after 500m, past a gate, uphill.

6

Follow this main track for over 2km to a T-junction. Turn left, then immediately keep left at the fork. Go through a gate. After 200m, take a left o the main track, through another gate, uphill. Ignore a rough track on the left. When you exit the trees, bear left across the open land on some faint singletrack.

7

The trail becomes clearer back in the trees. Keep ahead/left and descend through the wood. After a short rocky track past some caves, hike-a-bike on the left up a steep slope on a faint path as the other trail bears right (unless you prefer this as an easier option). Follow this track, which is technical in places, back down to the forest car park.

8

Go ahead at the track crossing you were at earlier, over another track crossing. Bear sharply left and turn left o the forest track, on some singletrack. Keep ahead on this, down to the road and go right, keeping left back into Dunkeld.

LOCATION DETAILS Dunkeld is one of the best-preserved historic towns in Scotland, surrounded by lovely countryside and a wide range of superb MTBing, from easy family rides along the River Tay to technical enduro trails on Birnam Hill, Craigvinean and Newtyle, or long XC loops beyond all these. The steep hills mean it drains well and, with the riding so close to town, it’s easy to dip in and out, riding as much or as little as you want.

GETTING THERE Dunkeld is just south of the Cairngorms, north of Perth, which in turn is north of Edinburgh, and easily accessed from the A9. The nearest railway station is in Birnam, just over the A9. There’s a car park to the north of the town and another by the river, on Tay Terrace, just before the bridge, to the south (-east).

MAPS & BOOKS Ordance Survey Landranger 53: Blairgowrie & Forest of Alyth. Southern Scotland and the 7stanes (Bikefax).

FACILITIES Stay at the Royal Dunkeld Hotel (01350 727322) or Inver Mill Farm caravan and camping park, just out of town to the west (01350 727477). There’s nothing out on the route, but it passes back through Dunkeld where there’s plenty of choice, including the ARAN Bakery, which makes an excellent mid-ride pit stop, or the Dunkeld Fish Bar, for afterwards. Progression Bikes in Dunkeld is excellent, too (01350 727629).