I had a tip off that this ride was a corker. Up from Alva on good access track,then wet grass to the summit of Ben Cleugh. What follows must be one of the best descents in Scotland. Long, varied, muddy, with a superb descending traverse on narrow incut path. With a few surprises thrown in. Loads of fun!
I’ve been thinking about doing Dumyat for a while, but never really considered Cleuch. I take it you went up Silver Glen? What route did you take back down?
Hi Fraser,
From the summit of Ben cleugh drop down and then ascend Andrew gannel hill. From here swoop down NE towards Maddy moss. The track that descends to Tillicoultry is the descending traverse previously mentioned. Steep and technical for the last km with tight switchback and steps.give it a go!
Righto, got you. I did the same descent from Andrew Gannel into Tilly after coming over from the Glendevon side! There was some pushing latterly, I wouldn’t recommend it coming from the reservoirs, deep rutted single track in places, pedals ready to dig in a fling you off down into the glen.
The approach to Mill Glen was fun, techy as you say, found my bikepacking saddlebag getting in the way on some parts, to the point I was pushing it down onto the rear tyre. Plenty of unclipping from SPDs on the narrower sections. 🙂
I was surprised to see how well a rigid 29er coped with it. Somewhat counter intuitively, I found the rigid fork really confidence inspiring as you knew what the front wheel was doing at all times. Big grin once finished though. Great fun!