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chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
glen tilt
Date Posted: 11.48hrs on Fri 3 Jun 11
hi all
has anyone biked glen tilt and if so whats the best way to do the route. heard theres a loop but also a there then back again route.

thanks
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 13.14hrs on Fri 3 Jun 11
The classic route is a proper big day out in the hills, detailed in many guides, including Phil McKane's Scotland, the Wild Trails.
I've done it many times and actually prefer the ride done anti-clockwise from Blair Athol, instead of Phil's clockwise. To be honest, it's best done in company with someone familiar with the route the first time. Although the nav isn't difficult, there are a couple of possible ways to make mistakes and on such a long day out, that would be a real nuisance.
Depending on company, mechanicals, blethering etc the full circumnavigation of Beinn a Ghlo will take anywhere from 6-9 hours.
I do it at some point most years.

There and back is a simple, gentle wander up the main glen to the iron bridge and back down. Very little singletrack, just a wee bit at the far end and at the finish.

The upper Tilt gorge is another matter altogether and is wonderful when plugged into a bigger trip.
paulww


Posts: 26
Joined: Mar 2010
Last Visited: 21:17
17th Feb 2015
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 08.40hrs on Sat 11 Jun 11
Rode it from Braemar to Blair Atholl as part of a three day tour of the cairngorms. Fantastic single track section North of the Falls of Tarf (best ridden North to South).
inchhighj


Posts: 73
Joined: Oct 2008
Last Visited: 21:52
14th Feb 2014
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 22.48hrs on Fri 17 Jun 11
Been gearing up for this run for a while now as part of a 2 or 3 dayer, blagging as much route info from the brains on here and other sites.

Proposed route,

Aviemore - Ryvoan/Bynack - L a L - Derry Lodge - White Bridge - Fealar Lodge - Old Bridge of Tilt - Falls of Tarf - White Bridge - Glen Feshie - Acleum - Loch an Eilein -Aviemore

Hustler what are the pros of going anti-clockwise in Glen Tilt? Also any suggestion as to stops? I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Cairngorms as much of my hiking/biking is done in the west, there seems to be a conflict on the Lairig an Loaigh as to how much is actually rideable as well.. cheers
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 13.12hrs on Tue 21 Jun 11
Firstly, the route you're thinking of is great, you'll have a ball doing all that, are you planning to camp and haul trailers? I don't quite follow what you have in mind for the mid section, were you planning to go down the Tilt gorge, then turn Left out to Fealar Lodge, do the classic Tilt loop via Daldhu to Blair Atholl, then all the way back up the Tilt to cross the Geldie again?
Hauling trailers back up the Tilt again is a tough ask but gets you the beautiful singletrack in upper Feshie.

I'd plan on three days for this sort of route but you'll need to remember that the Lairig an Laoigh is a tough nut to crack and I'd only do it with a minimal pack, not a trailer. It is well techy in places, but better than 95% rideable to any good rider. Two hardest bits are 1/2km just N of Fords of Avon shelter and then the 1Km just N of the Lairig pass itself, between there and the last lochan. If you are competent, you should manage everything else. And if you're good, you'll get quite a bit of the Fords section too.
I usually do big trips with a 20L pack and stay in B&Bs but this limits your route selection a bit to stopping in villages. I'd stop in Braemar on night 1, Blair Atholl on 2 and that's it cracked. Day two is then your easiest day and day three the hardest of all, through distance and through having to deal with the water bars and ditches at the Geldie-Feshie crossing.

Go double and bash, not a three ring crank. No way you'll do it without grinding the big ring at some point.

inchhighj


Posts: 73
Joined: Oct 2008
Last Visited: 21:52
14th Feb 2014
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 22.52hrs on Mon 27 Jun 11
No, no trailers, I like to throw the bike around to much for that! If the gods are with us and we hit it off weather wise it'll be under the night sky with bivvy bags, If not then I'll need to plunder my fathers scout hall for some ultra lightweight kit (My biggest niggle with long days in the saddle comes from the shoulders and thats sometimes without a pack!) as B&Bs aren't really an option as my readys are required for the summer holiday with the good lady.

Yeah east to Fealar lodge and down to Atholl and back up the Tilt, and the bash and medium cage were stuck on bike last week and tuned. I Appreciate your positive comments about the route, got me right in the mood.

Fitness and technical ability I don't see as much of an issue, its more the mental aspect if the weather turns on us, been there a couple of times recently and could do with a bit of luck.

I'll make sure I get plenty of pics for a report Chrisski
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 12.17hrs on Fri 1 Jul 11
Looking forward to hearing the tales...

Two nights under bivvy is committed, hope it goes well. A good plan might be to stop the first night near Red Rock cottage, after White Bridge and before crossing the Geldie. This means plenty of firewood in an otherwise empty landscape.
Alternatively, and a good plan if its wet, is to cross the Geldie at the end of day one, then camp at the ruined lodge just before crossing onto the Tilt side of the watershed. This way you get to dry out your feet a bit and not have to start the day with a river crossing. There is a bit of shelter at the old lodge but less wood.
Night two could be done at the same location before re-crossing the Geldie and heading west to Feshie. Alternatively, stopping high in Glen Tilt on day two near the final woods or up at the iron (Tarff) bridge still leaves day three manageable and with an interesting, challenging singletrack climb to open proceedings. There is flat ground and a scrap of wood to be found near the Tarff bridge.
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 21.31hrs on Sun 3 Jul 11
cheers inchhighj! we are doing it next sun 10th july and looks like we might be doing it the clockwise way but heard you can do it anti clockwise way! not sure which is easier! hustler- which is easier?
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 12.02hrs on Mon 4 Jul 11
Chris, my own preference is to do the classic Tilt circuit anti-clockwise, as the section from Fealar Lodge to the Tilt crossing is both downhill and forms the most techy part of the day. Better to ride down it than push up.
The other main section of singletrack, W of Glen Loch, rides equally well either way around.

A good plan is to start and finish at the small car park just SW of the main bridge over the Tilt right in the middle of in Blair Athol, by the ranger station. That way you are packing your bike away at the end of the day, right next to a good chipper.
Also, if doing that, look out for the wee trail cut off from the main home-ward bound Tilt track, just yards above the Old bridge of Tilt car park. Taking that leads over the tiny stone arch bridge above the road and down the riverside to come out by that car park.

Neither way is easier, both are a proper long day out.
Enjoy...
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 21.59hrs on Mon 4 Jul 11
thanks hustler cant wait ;-)

inchhighj


Posts: 73
Joined: Oct 2008
Last Visited: 21:52
14th Feb 2014
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 21.31hrs on Wed 6 Jul 11
Will probably bump into you at some point chrisski as we will be heading off late on the night of Friday the 8th July and see how far we can get before dusk, so will probably be heading down/up Glen tilt on the latter part of Saturday or early Sunday morning, are you goinjg with the boys from the Trailscotland website by any chance?! would of loved to join them but we've been on about making a trip of this for some time now.

Decided to take the bivvy bags after all, I was struggling to pack the tent poles comfortably with the weight, so have opted for a danish army issue basher and some bungee cords for extra shelter. If you mean Ruigh-nan-clach (red rock cottage?) looks like a decent spot after googling if we're close to there, although if we get enough of a head start Friday, optimistically I'd like to be somewhere around Balaneasie Saturday night :0 !! Managed 60 miles of WHW north to south not long ago in just over 12hours ( Iknow the terrain will be different) but we have plenty scope to change the route etc. as we go and just see how the legs cope.
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 00.17hrs on Thu 7 Jul 11
nope not going with the trailscotland guys but are they up there too? there will be 4 of us (maybe 3)staying at kincraig sat night after doing wolftraxx on sat then down to g tilt on sunday. hopefully no batman stuntmen land on top of us like they did at lagganlia!
JPRobertson


Posts: 19
Joined: Dec 2010
Last Visited: 15:04
24th Nov 2014
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 11.11hrs on Thu 7 Jul 11
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 22.24hrs on Thu 7 Jul 11
nice one jprobertson. guess u did tilt anti-clockwise? as a fellow photog like your webpage too!
JPRobertson


Posts: 19
Joined: Dec 2010
Last Visited: 15:04
24th Nov 2014
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 09.41hrs on Fri 8 Jul 11
Yep, anti-clockwise. It is a very good ride and took us about 7 hours in total. Though that does include stopping to look for the bolt for my crank after it fell off 10k from the end - in the end we just hit it back on with a rock...

Those photos were taken on woca (very similar to a lomo holga), it saves me worrying about expensive cameras while I'm riding.
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 21.34hrs on Mon 11 Jul 11
epic, awesome, amazing and bloody hell aint doing that again, is all i can say after doing glen tilt on sun 10th july!,

so glad we did it anti clockwise! all 3 of us were hungover two, with me having only managed 3.5hrs sleep!
how our legs ache!
got lost near start as took wrong turn and ended up at buildings with cattle. walked back up and saw some "dodgy" character with big backpack.
found path and didnt get lost again til we got to Fealar lodge and couldnt find single path til further along after consulting map!

def worth doing but wouldnt do it again but would def say to folk to do it and recommend doing it anti clockwise! did it in 8 hrs which seems reasonable!
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 12.11hrs on Tue 12 Jul 11
No-one said it would be easy.
Good, glad you had a ball. It's a proper challenge, a proper day out in the Scottish hills. The nav can be a bit of an issue in a couple of places but the quality of the trails make up for it.
One area that can cause trouble is at the turn just before Shinagag, then again after crossing the Valigan burn the trail disapears briefly among the old ruined shielings before re-appearing a few yards on.
The singletrack west from Fealar Lodge begins at the gate just at the back of the kennel building, goes up the grazing field briefly before contouring along and heading for the fence parallel to the first bit of the gorge. from there it should be easy to stay on the path to the zig-zags down to the Tilt crossing. Bet the river was up a bit with all that rain.
Does any of that make sense?
If you liked that as a day out, I've a few more good ones in mind...
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 23.21hrs on Tue 12 Jul 11
wish had known about going up back of fealar lodge as we went along by the gorge then had to walk up!

rivers were not too bad to be honest! well worth the ride!
Hustler


Posts: 760
Joined: Oct 2006
Last Visited: 07:52
19th Aug 2019
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 11.53hrs on Wed 13 Jul 11
Aye, for future reference (!), cross the wee bridge, up, then left and stay on the track at Fealar Lodge, through the yard in front of the cottage and pass the back of the barn/kennel building to the field gate. that's the start of the trail. It's clear on the 1:25,000 OS map but not on so clear on the 50k.
chrisski


Posts: 359
Joined: Feb 2005
Re: glen tilt
Date Posted: 22.31hrs on Wed 13 Jul 11
we were using a 50!

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