Comrie Croft Bike Trails
Nestled in the heart of beautiful Perthshire, yet only an hours drive from Scotland’s major cities, Comrie Croft Bike Trails are a new, compact and expanding set of dedicated trails with a little something for everyone. The trails are located on our private estate and have been hand dug by local volunteers, which gives them a surprisingly natural feel. Variety is key to our trails and what is at present a relatively short loop packs a fairly mighty punch. You’ll be sure to enjoy the challenges that Comrie Croft Bike Trails throw up, and soon be heading back round for more!
The Trails
The trails are an expanding mix of existing forest roads and hand built, dedicated singletrack which combine to give you an exhilarating ride. They start and finish at Comrie Croft, a four star Independent Hostel, situated in the heart of rural Perthshire in the beautiful Strathearn Valley.
From the car park you are quickly climbing on forest trails, which although steep at first, become a little kinder on the calves and as you rise out of the valley, you are greeted by some spectacular scenery. Following a brief downhill respite, the singletrack begins and winds its way up through some technical forest sections with some interesting features, check out the chunky bedrock slab with off camber descent, and the water splash. A little more climbing takes you to the descent, which is a thrilling mix of tight twisty singletrack and natural bedrock. On the way down you’ll also encounter a little fun park in a disused quarry and a great variety of surfaces and riding styles.
Not a course to be ridden at top speed, the emphasis is more on the technical and challenging aspects of riding and after an hour you’ll be back in the car park with a big grin on your face and a healthy notion to go and do it all again!
All the trails are graded red with some black sections, and at present measure around 6kms. We are in the process of adding in some escape routes to give you an option round some of the more technical parts of the trail. Watch this space for more details, we’ll keep you updated as and when they happen.
Facilities
Theres nothing worse than coming off of a tiring ride and having to squeeze out of a soggy pair of cycling shorts in the comfort of the front seat of your car, well ok there might be a few worse things, but we here at Comrie Croft Bike Trails appreciate that we all enjoy a few creature comforts after a hard day in the saddle.
With that in mind we aim to please with our facilities on offer. First off there’s Comrie Croft itself, a 70 bed, 4 star independent hostel, spread over two buildings and with great benefits for residents such as comfy couches, laundry facilities, a drying room, games room and of course beds! Please see the website www.comriecroft.com for full details. Also now open is our Eco-Campsite, with 24 pitches set amongst the picturesque lower woods of the estate. Both of these offer an excellent opportunity for an overnight stay to check out some of the other excellent natural trails the Strathearn area has to offer.
For those of you not stopping too long, you’ll still have the chance to take advantage of our shop, with juice and snacks, tea and coffee, ice cream and cakes, crisps….stop drooling, just get down here! We also have some basic bike spares in the shop, tubes, cable, brake blocks and other essentials to get you going again should you break down. We can carry out repairs on site, just pop into the shop and speak to a member of staff and we’ll do our best to get you back going again.
Don’t have your own bike? No problem, Comrie Croft Bikes has a fleet of high quality Giant Terrago Discs available for hire on site, just park up, hire and you can be on the trail in minutes, see bike hire for details. On top of this we also have ample free parking, toilets, showers, Bike Wash, free maps of other local trails, and of course the best views in Strathearn!
Sponsors & Thanks
We couldn’t do what we do without some generous help from our sponsors.
We are indebted first and foremost to Comrie Croft for the support and use of the land for without Comrie Croft there would be no trails, see www.comriecroft.com
We would like to thank Strathearn Engineering for help with our 4x4, they are Landrover specialists and have given us invaluable support, see www.strathearnengineering.com
Tool and wheelbarrows generously donated along with all manner of help from Frank Thomsons in Crieff, the leading light on Crieff High Street http://www.strathearn.com/crieff/thomson.htm
Financial Backing and support with volunteers has been generously donated by Morrisons Academy in Crieff www.morrisonsacademy.org
Financial support also generously donated by www.ihbrown.com/ the Perth based specialists in Civil Engineering, Remediation, Energy and Development.
A great level of assistance has also been received from the driving force that is the Crieff and Strathearn Drovers Tryst, the annual walking and outdoors festival www.droverstryst.com.
Also helping out and supporting the Hairy Coo Mountain Bike Challenge, Comrie Croft Bike Trails annual MTB event :
http://www.nordicoutdoor.co.uk/
http://www.towerhotelcrieff.com/
www.scottishnativewoods.org.uk/
Sinclair Cycles in Auchterarder – 01764 660996
