Cycling UK Forum

There is a thread on here re this route that is over ten years old. I am keen to find out what the surface currently like for loaded tourers from the A712 south around Loch Clatteringshaw via Craigencallie following the off road sections of NCN 7. Is the route comfortably rideable on loaded non suspension touring bikes please? Another option for me is the Raiders Route following NCN 7 to Creetown again, what this surface currently like please?
I had a dreadful experience last year following a Sustrans NCN route that was unrideable on anything other than MTB, and it was not signed as such, i don't want to do the same.

Any thoughts on what the A712 is like to ridealong would also be welcomed, the National Byway has signed a lot of this route as well, is it heavily trafficked???
Helpful responses and photos from folk who have ridden either of these routes would be appreciated, thank you.

I’m getting a little out of date over there but the A712 was always a quiet road. Always used for Audax routes. I can’t imagine it’s changed at all maybe a few stick lorries if harvesting nearby.
The last time I rode it was a Friday evening in pouring rain not a soul about.

Thank you, that is really helpful. I fancied the 'off road' routes because they look interesting and add enough miles to make up a day. I was horribly surprised by a sustrans route last year that got us into big trouble as it was so shockingly bad and unrideable in sections. I'm v cautious about them now.

Which was the bad sustrans route?

NCN 68 north of Once Brewed, the route becomes a forest track, but a very very bad and used forest track. Once you reach the bit accessible by forestry lorries it becomes OK again. Again, the same route south of Wooler. We tried to do it on loaded tourers and had to abandon the route and lay on a bus transfer for my clients instead. Absolutely shocking. I am usually happy using accessible unsealed forest tracks and have plenty of experience riding unsurfaced routes, but these were nothing like this.

GPC wrote:NCN 68 north of Once Brewed, the route becomes a forest track, but a very very bad and used forest track. Once you reach the bit accessible by forestry lorries it becomes OK again.

How long ago?

I thought it was OK in June, using it to ride Bellingham --> Haltwhistle --> Bellingham in a day when my stove developed a gas leak in the hose and I went to Keswick for a replacement.
A couple of puddles deep enough to invite damp feet (I wear SPD sandals), and one bit where lack of sufficient attack would invite having to push for 50 m or so, but it was perfectly rideable otherwise.

I did route 68 Pennine cycle way at the August bank holiday from Berwick as far as gargrave. The section south of Wooler had five boggy bits/fords and the bridge is hard work on a fully loaded tourer. The forest section was badly rutted and wet due to foresty work I dowt they will have repaired it.i got through ok on my 2" mondials. Saw others on 28mm pushing. Choose your route to suit the bike.

nick12 wrote:I did route 68 Pennine cycle way at the August bank holiday from Berwick as far as gargrave.
The forest section was badly rutted and wet due to foresty work I dowt they will have repaired it.

It was mostly like this in June:

with the final half mile or so at the north end having been freshly rebuilt:


I suppose the rebuild must have been in preparation for imminent tree chopping, that did the damage you found.
Riding during or soon after felling operations is always a hazard with any route through forestry.

nick12 wrote:I did route 68 Pennine cycle way at the August bank holiday from Berwick as far as gargrave. The section south of Wooler had five boggy bits/fords and the bridge is hard work on a fully loaded tourer. The forest section was badly rutted and wet due to foresty work I dowt they will have repaired it.i got through ok on my 2" mondials. Saw others on 28mm pushing. Choose your route to suit the bike.

Choose your route to suit the bike
That really is not helpful, I had no idea what the route would look like before the tour, its an NCN route, I'm a cycle tourer, not a medium. Good grief.

I'm not at all interested in discussing the route 68 bit, but would welcome comments on the section in the original post please re the Clatteringshaws route.

nick12 wrote:I did route 68 Pennine cycle way at the August bank holiday from Berwick as far as gargrave. The section south of Wooler had five boggy bits/fords and the bridge is hard work on a fully loaded tourer. The forest section was badly rutted and wet due to foresty work I dowt they will have repaired it.i got through ok on my 2" mondials. Saw others on 28mm pushing. Choose your route to suit the bike.

Thank you

Hello Andrew, do you have any photos on the section south of Clatteringshaws please? The subject of the OP. . . .
I'm really not too interested on getting into an off topic discussion on another route.

by GPC » 20 Nov 2019, 9:26am

from the A712 south around Loch Clatteringshaw via Craigencallie following the off road sections of NCN 7.

The road to the west of the loch from the dam to Craigencallie is single track tarmac. From Craigencallie to Bruce’s Stane it is maintained gravel, then tarmac again. I have ridden it on a Brompton. The surface is usually looked after by the Commission, but it is the nature of forestry roads that they might be ripped up by the machinery at any time, without warning.

On the A712 it is usually quiet, but the locals drive fast and there are occasional convoys of stick wagons. The lads who drive the timber lorries are proper “knights of the road” types who are usually friendly and helpful, but if you here them approaching out in the forest it is a good idea to plan to keep out of their way; the noise and debris can a bit intimidating.

Your later post says

do you have any photos on the section south of Clatteringshaws please? The subject of the OP, I'm really not too interested on getting into an off topic discussion on another route.

Craigencallie is north of Clateringshaws. Do you mean the NCN7 track which heads south from Clatteringshaws past Loch Grannoch to the Big Water of Fleet ? Same thing applies, really; gravel track mostly OK for 37mm tyres, occasionally the Forestry crew will rip it up at no notice.

If this is a serious worry to you, you might try contacting the Forestry Scotland district access office at enquiries.south@forestryandland.gov.scot , and ask them what they expect the track to be like on your dates. They won’t know one bike from another, and if you get a reply within 3 days they are doing well.

As my entry to this year’s Pedents Corner, I feel the need to point out that it’s called “Clatteringshaws Loch”.

Cheers.

All helpful stuff, thank you Tinnishill. I plan to take a holiday group along there next year so would like to have an idea what it's surfaced with. Comments such as 'I rode it on a Brompton' are just the sort of info I need. I live in Scotland, am VERY familiar with forestry routes etc, but have never been along that one. We'll be on loaded tourers and can usually cope with forest tracks, but some can take me by surprise, particularly when they are not a forestry owned track, but council owned route such as the NCN68 as I pointed out earlier.

I'll do a recce myself thanks to your comments here, sometimes I won't take the time if the route is really way off kilter, but this one sounds OK.

BTW, the route that this thread got hijacked to discuss was much worse than those pics above show. It was nothing to do with forest operations either, but on the local authority owned section. I spoke to Forestry officers about it and it had not been used in years for forestry work. It was signed as NCN 68 part of the Sustrans network, but not signed as a MTB section as they sometime indicate, hence I included it in my recce and we came a cropper. I contacted Sustrans as well, hopefully they'll sign it as a very poorly MTB only surfaced section.

GPC wrote:NCN 68 north of Once Brewed, the route becomes a forest track, but a very very bad and used forest track. Once you reach the bit accessible by forestry lorries it becomes OK again. Again, the same route south of Wooler. We tried to do it on loaded tourers and had to abandon the route and lay on a bus transfer for my clients instead. Absolutely shocking. I am usually happy using accessible unsealed forest tracks and have plenty of experience riding unsurfaced routes, but these were nothing like this.

Plus 1
I probably pushed for 2 miles plus within the forest towards the end of a long hot day in May last year. Ride out to Bellingham and campsite made it worthwhile but knackering though