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There's more information on what's happening around the 7stanes in our press releases section.

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Latest news

26/06/09 Glentress Peel project update

The information on the Glentress Peel project - the development of new facilities at Glentress for visitors to the Tweed Valley Forest Park, (including Glentress) - has been updated on the main Forestry Commission Scotland site.  Details at http://www.forestry.gov.uk/glentress.  

26/06/09 Garmin GPS Demo Day at Glentress

Fancy trying a Garmin GPS unit for free and a chance of winning some fantastic prizes and a place on the Garmin Academy at the same time?  Garmin/Bike Radar are holding a demo at Glentress on Sun 26th July, where you'll be able to test out a GPS unit following a special route combining all the best bits of trail at Glentress.  For more info and to sign up go to:  http://www.bikeradar.com/garmin 

03/06/09 Events update - Glentress/Innerleithen/Newcastleton

Kids Dirt Crit Races return to Glentress
Organised by Peebles Cycling Club, this hugely popular series of summer evening races for U-16's returns for its third year. Dirt Crits involve racing around an exciting, short, fast offroad circuit (1-2km long) for a set number of laps depending on your age.  There's categories for all ages from 6 - 16 yrs old. The course at Glentress uses the 'Blue Velvet' singletrack - big grins guaranteed!

The organisers sum it up perfectly: "a truly grass-roots experience open to all young riders who want a taste of racing in a friendly, exciting atmosphere".

The first race is on Thursday 11th June, with registration and bike checks at the Buzzards Nest carpark from 17:00 and the first race at 18:15.  You can enter online at http://www.entrycentral.com/index.php?festivalID=103 (recommended to book your place) or on the night.

There are 6 races in the series. The other dates are:  18th June; 25th June; 30th July; 6th Aug; 13th Aug.

Free Bike Skills Session at Newcastleton 7stanes - 20th June
As part of National Bike Week we're holding a free skills session at Newcastleton Forest on Saturday 20th June from 10am to 1pm.  The session is aimed at novice and intermediate mountain bikers and will be run by our very own Mountain Bike Rangers.  It's a great opportunity to learn and develop some essential offroad skills, which will help build confidence and most importantly enable you to have more fun on the bike! 

We still have a few places left.  To book, contact MTB Ranger Andy Wardman at  andy.wardman@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or 07900 138901.  All you need to bring is a mountain bike in good working order, helmet and clothing suitable for riding outdoors. 

National Mountain Bike Championships at Innerleithen - update
The highlight of the XC racing year is approaching fast, with less than 50 training days(!) left until the British National Champs, being held at Innerleithen 7stanes over the weekend of 18th/19th July.

Oli Beckingsale and Jenny Copnall are both signed up to defend their Elite titles, and with Liam Killeen back racing again and Sue Clarke impressing with some good form at Margam NPS it is building up to an exciting showdown!

Entries close on 19th June for the Champs races in all categories, and will close the week of 12th July for the Sport race. Full details, including an update on the camping arrangements at www.innerleithenmtbracing.com

It all promises to be a fantastic weekend of racing especially with the National DH Champs being held at Inners at the same time.  A great chance to also see the UK's (and many of the world's) top DH riders in action.  Check out www.npsdh.com for updates.

03/06/09 Follow 7stanes on Twitter

We're now on Twitter - you can follow us via http://twitter.com/7stanes.

02/06/09 7stanes blog goes live

There's loads going on around the 7stanes but we can't always fit the details in here.  Enter the 7stanes blog, which we hope will quickly gain a following.  The plan is to keep the main 7stanes site for general info, main news items, trail conditions and so on, but to use the blog to bring you more quirky stuff, items from trailbuilders and rangers, events reports and so on.  You can of course comment on what's there, so let us know if there's anything you think we should be doing.

The blog's at http://7stanes.blogspot.com.

01/06/09 Rate our trails!

We've added a rate this trail feature to each of our trail pages, so get typing and let us know what you think.  You can rate the trail out of five and leave a comment.  We moderate all comments, so there will be a bit of a lag between you submitting it and it appearing on the page, but we'll aim to get them up there as soon as possible.  Please have a read of the terms of use too.

If you have a specific question that you'd like answered about a trail, please email us at 7stanes@forestry.gsi.gov.uk rather than using the comment function.

27/04/09 Venerable North Shore at Ewok Village joins great Black Trail in the sky

The North Shore timber features at the Ewok Village section of the Glentress Black trail have, sadly, come to the end of their lifespans and have had to be removed.  They will be replaced later this year or early 2010.  More in due course.

27/04/09 Photo competition winners return to 7stanes

7stanes photo competition winner Mark Widdowson and partner with their prize.Mark Widdowson, winner of the 7stanes photo competition, returned to the 7stanes trails over Easter with his partner Lindsay to collect his prize – a swanky digital Canon camera.  It was also a great excuse for them to ride the trails once again after having such a great time last year! 

7stanes photo competition runner-up Fraser Norris with Emma at the Hub.Runner-up Fraser Norris, who won a skills session at Glentress, is now well and truly hooked: since having his skills session with Emma at The Hub, he has been busy building ramps and jumps in his back garden so he can practice his jumping and braking!

Many thanks once again to Glendinnings Groundworks Ltd who sponsored the digital Canon camera prize.

Other articles

09/03/09 7stanes photo competition results

Many thanks to those of you who entered the photo competition.  The winning photo, runners-up and a slideshow of all the entries is on the photo competition results page.

There's still time to solve the mystery of the seven stanes on the 7stanes, or to win a 7stanes buff by riding at all the 7stanes locations - see the arts project competition page for details. 

09/03/09 7stanes trail profiles now available

We've published trail profiles for each of the 7stanes locations, showing where climbs and descents occur at different places along the trails. The PDF versions are full scale and printable. Note that the Dalbeattie profile is still being prepared. See the trail profiles page for details.

01/08/08 Tweed Valley Mountain Bikers Hospitality Scheme

The Tweed Valley Tourist Consortia have developed a brand new Mountain Bikers Hospitality Scheme after listening to mountain bikers and finding out exactly what they need from accommodation during a visit. 

The scheme members are a special collection of hotels, bed and breakfasts and self catering properties which are totally geared up to providing mountain bikers with everything they need for the perfect break.  As well as a lovely place to stay and a wonderful bike-friendly welcome, riders can be assured of safe, lockable storage for their prized mountain bike, a bike washing and maintenance area, a clothes drying room and plenty of quality high-carb meals to re-fuel for the next day’s adventure.

The Tweed Valley, which takes in 7stanes Glentress and Innerleithen, is the first area in Scotland to provide such a scheme, which assures riders of finding genuinely mountain bike-friendly accommodation and is focussed on providing a world class mountain biking experience in this beautiful corner of Scotland.

To find out how to book just visit www.visittweedvalley.co.uk and look out for the sign at accommodation properties throughout the Tweed Valley.

03/07/08 7stanes user survey

If you've ever visited the MTB venues in southern Scotland, the Mountain Bike Business Network would like to find out about your experiences to help their members improve their services. All information is completely confidential and the MBBN will be very grateful for your input. 

Take the 7stanes user survey.

13/05/08 Trail grading revisions

There's been a change in the way that we are grading trails.  Grades are now split between those for cross-country singletrack trails and those for bike parks (including downhill trails) and forest roads.

This is to highlight that forest roads can be of variable difficulty and are not part of a progression on to green and blue level singletrack trails, and similarly, orange-graded bike parks are not simply a progression on from singletrack grades.

You'll see these changes reflected in maps and on signage around the 7stanes.  For a full explanation of what each trail grade means, see the trail grades page.

24/05/07 Weekly MTB group at Dalbeattie

As at Mabie, there's now a regular weekly mountain bike group at Dalbeattie.  Organised by the Hardrock Cycle Club, the group meets on Thursdays at 6.30pm, starting from the Dalbeattie trail head.  All abilities welcome.  For more details, visit the Hardrock Cycle Club website.

21/05/07 Regular MTB group at Mabie, for all levels

There is a regular weekly mountain bike group running at Mabie on Thursday evenings, meeting at 7pm at The Shed.  If you're new to biking there will be qualified leaders present to take you or your kids out.  We would prefer if Primary School age kids rode with a parent/gaurdian.   For more details call Greg Knowles of Dumfries Cycling Club on 01557 332034, or look at www.ddcc.ik.org.

Press releases

There's more information on what's happening around the 7stanes in our press releases section.