Mountain biking in Scotland? Not if you’re dependent on public transport

Scot­land’s tour­ism author­it­ies have been keep­ing glob­al stake­hold­ers happy by declar­ing ‘cli­mate emer­gency’ and plan­ning ‘trans­form­a­tion­al tour­ism’, but have they lost touch with Scots?

In his first “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Alastair Naughton ques­tioned the poor access­ib­il­ity of Scot­tish ski resorts.

In this “GT” Insight he won­ders why pub­lic trans­port is mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult to go moun­tain bik­ing in Scotland.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

I’ve writ­ten about this before and make no apo­lo­gies for doing so again. 

Scot­land needs to up its game in terms of pub­lic transport. 

My last “Good Tour­ism” Insight con­cerned a lack of access to Scotland’s ski resorts for those who do not own, can­not rent, or are unable to drive a car. 

More recently I came across yet anoth­er bar­ri­er to access Scot­land’s great out­doors, and one which has the poten­tial to affect many more people than the rel­at­ively small num­bers who may want to par­ti­cip­ate in snow sports. 

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged with ‘Access­ible tourism’

Stage­coach, the bus com­pany that cov­ers one of the most, if not the most, icon­ic of all tour­ist routes in the coun­try, fails to run coaches that can trans­port bicycles. 

This rep­res­ents a severe bar­ri­er to those from Aber­deen who would like to come out and spend the day cyc­ling in the hills. 

How any­one at Stage­coach headquar­ters can think this makes good busi­ness sense is quite simply bey­ond me. 

Mountain biking in Scotland: A rarefied experience

An old school friend of mine and I recently decided to head up to Roy­al Deeside for a day’s cyc­ling and wild swim­ming at the Linn Of Dee. We put our bikes on the back of his car, and off we went. 

The Deeside Val­ley was made fam­ous by Queen Vic­tor­ia. She made it her hol­i­day home, far from Lon­don’s mad­ding crowds. 

The fur­ther up the Dee Val­ley you go, the more aware you are of the area’s con­nec­tions with the Roy­al Fam­ily. This is, of course, where Bal­mor­al is situated. 

The Linn Of Dee is repor­ted to have been the monarch’s favour­ite pic­nic spot, and it’s not dif­fi­cult to see why. 

With an icon­ic bridge cross­ing a spec­tac­u­lar gorge, which allows one of the first water­falls in the Dee pass through it, the pic­tur­esque spot would have made the per­fect set­ting for a Jane Aus­ten novel. 

You can almost ima­gine Vic­tor­ia com­ing here with her game­keep­er, Mr Brown (if the rumours are to be believed!) 

It is also the per­fect spot for a wild swim, as long as you are ready to brace your­self for an extremely cold dunk­ing to get started! 

The pools at the Linn Of Dee are spec­tac­u­larly beau­ti­ful, being at the bot­tom of a water­fall, just big enough to swim about in, and enclosed enough to ensure you won’t get swept away by the current. 

The area around the Linn Of Dee also offers bril­liant, breath­tak­ing cyc­ling coun­try, with a choice of sev­er­al moun­tain bike routes, graded accord­ing to difficulty. 

Routes include the Linn Of Dee and Beinn Mhead­hoin cir­cu­lar trail, the out and back route to Càrn a’ Mahaim, as well as the point-to-point track to the Lairig Ghru. 

This list is by no means exhaust­ive, and those inter­ested should vis­it the Best Moun­tain Bik­ing Trails in Brae­mar page of the All Trails web­site for fur­ther options. 

Getting to Royal Deeside: A common nonsense

There is how­ever one fly in the oint­ment for those who come from fur­ther afield to take part in these ped­al-powered pleas­ures: Access to a private car is a necessity. 

It used to be the case that cyc­lists could put their bikes in the lug­gage com­part­ments of Stage­coach buses. (You could, for example, get off at Brae­mar and cycle the five miles (eight kilo­metres) to Linn of Dee and have plenty of time in the day, and energy in the legs, to explore the area.)

Not now. Stage­coach, in their wis­dom, have taken all coach-type buses off this route and replaced them with buses that have no lug­gage storage. 

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged with ‘Tour­ism infra­struc­ture and development’

The res­ult is that no bicycles can be car­ried on any of the buses along that route. 

Brae­mar, the last vil­lage in the Val­ley, and the nearest point of civil­isa­tion to the Linn Of Dee, has just been voted the best place in Scot­land for a staycation. 

Yet if your plans for said stayc­a­tion include going moun­tain bik­ing in the most beau­ti­ful coun­tryside in the world, but, for whatever reas­on, you don’t have access to a private car, you have the fol­low­ing choices:

1. you can hire a bike in Bal­later, 18 miles (29 km) away in Deeside Val­ley, or
2. leave your bike at home and miss out on the experience. 

This must have the poten­tial to neg­at­ively affect hun­dreds of people every year. 

It is all so stu­pid. It nev­er used to be like this. And it is so easy to fix.

It used to be the case that you simply loaded your bike on to the coach at whatever point you boarded. Simple. Why the change? 

I try to ima­gine the scen­ario some­where else. If I had gone on a cyc­ling tour in Ger­many, for example, I would have been furi­ous if I had rocked up at a bus sta­tion only to be told that the bus couldn’t carry my bike. (As it hap­pens, Roy­al Deeside is a favour­ite with Ger­man tour­ists, so what on earth does Stage­coach think it is play­ing at?)

I have writ­ten to the bus com­pany and also to Vis­itScot­land to ask for an explan­a­tion and await a response. 

In the event, I per­son­ally was not affected, as I had access to my friend’s car. But it was a timely remind­er about those who don’t have that luxury. 

It really defies belief! They need to sort this now! 

Here ende­th my rant. 

If you are able, please go and enjoy the moun­tain bik­ing, and wild swim­ming at the Linn Of Dee … It’s too good to miss out on!

What do you think? Share your own thoughts in a com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” is where free thought travels.

Fea­tured pic (top of post): Moun­tain bik­ing in Scot­land? Not if you’re depend­ent on pub­lic trans­port … Linn Of Dee water­fall image sup­plied by Alastair Naughton

About the author

Alastair Naughton is a trans­lat­or (Ger­man to Eng­lish) and copy­writer at Naughton Trans­la­tions, Scot­land.