Glenlivet bike park opened a new line last year called Keiran’s Trail, at less than a kilometre in length it’s no Blue Doon (8km straight down, at Fort William), but it’s probably the most progressive trail in Scotland, with gaps, berms and rollers galore. 

Now work’s about to start to double its length, and there are plans to add 500m of singletrack to two other trails and attract an “explosion of good riders,” according to Glenlivet’s owner Barry Edmondson. The “best berm” in Scotland is packed into Keiran’s Trail, built by Gregor Jolliffe and CRC, it’s just one of dozens that help riders boost their speed, enjoyment and control.

The modernising of Scotland’s North East has already started in effect, Barry says, when Keiran’s Trail opened in 2023. “It gave us something that nobody else in Scotland was doing,” Barry says. “It was a really good step for us because it took us in a new direction, and we had something that, except at Tarlands, you just couldn’t get anywhere else in Scotland.”

What Scotland has in plentiful supply of course, are natural trails, and indeed the country hosts some of the best mountain bike routes in the UK. Flow trails are in short supply, but are growing in number, with Cairngorm Mountain Bike Trails opening for the season earlier this month. 

Glenlivet features berms high enough for a bobsleigh

Glenlivet trails need to know

• Two jump lines, the Orange Loop and Keiran’s Trail
• Blue trail called Original Blue, with optional extra flowy section called Bazzas Berms
• Mini DH track graded black,
• Red Loop on the hill opposite the main tracks
• Suitable for new riders and kids up to experienced riders happy to jump
• Big expansion planned for Keiran’s Trail, Mini DH and Bazzas Berms

The new stuff at Glenlivet is all about flow then, with beautifully crafted jumps that grow in size as your momentum – and confidence – carry you down the hill. This is something that Scotland has been missing for a long time, Barry says – there’s plenty of techie steep stuff, rocky trails, natural mountain passes – but no jumps. Now though, places like Tarlands and Glenlivet are gaining a solid reputation among riders who want to get high.

Trail building really is a form of art, at least at Glenlivet

Glenlivet Part 2

To take Glenlivet forward, the next step is to extend Keirin’s Line, perhaps as early as this summer and potentially double its length. There are also extensions planned for the bike park’s blue trail, called Bazzas Berms. It’s a blue flow trail from top to bottom and it’s loaded with rollers, the idea being to interest expert riders who want to double them up, and new riders to pump. It’ll double in length, adding 500m to the run, as will the Mini-Downhill trail, which will stretch up to start at the top of the hill and add another 500metres to its length too.

The soil is ideal… to build jumps and flow trails from

Small jumps, perfectly formed

“They’re not exactly massive here, it’s not Dyfi where Jamie goes to train,” they’re actually quite small, but they are fun.” Jamie Edmondson is of course an elite level downhill racer, as well as being Barry’s son. 

Trail builders CRC put Kerian’s Line together, with diggers but by eye

It’s easy to see why Glenlivet is the right place to change things then. “The soil is ideal for it and the terrain is completely rock-free, and instead is made from the perfect aggregate to build jumps and flow trails from, locking together like gravel,” Barry says.

“It was perfect ground, we had two machines building the trail, one digging big holes, clearing the dead trees and filling back up again with the soil, and then the other machine was just shaping the lips and making it flow.”

Keiran’s Trail legacy

“Keiran McKandie would be 23 now, but he was riding in the local woods, the trail ran out onto a road and he got hit by a car and ended up dying that day,” Barry says, when I ask him why the name. “His parents said, had there been a defibrillator in the police car that arrived he could have been saved, so they set up a charity called Keiran’s Legacy to put defibrillators into every emergency vehicle in Scotland. 

The charity has now put some 300 defibrillators in village halls, community centres and emergency response vehicles in Scotland, with around 20 lives saved so far, it reckons.

“The one thing they really wanted too was a trail named after Keiran,” Barry says. Obviously, they couldn’t go and find a non-sanction trail, which is what he’d been digging, and the Forestry Land Scotland said ‘we don’t do memorials’. So eventually they asked us.

“I said we’d be more than happy to name it after him. My son Jamie is the same age as him, they’d ridden together a couple of times, and… it could so easily have been my son, you know?”

Tarland 2 trails are pretty close by, and with Glenlivet, Ballater and Lagan help build the region as an attractive area for mountain bikers 

North West powerhouse

The Scottish Borders remains the focal point for mountain biking, it’s the capital of singletrack and lists the Tweed Valley amongst its crown jewels. But venues like Glenlivet prove it’s worth travelling further north to find great riding. Tarlands, Ballater, Laggan and now Glenlivet mean that there’s easily enough riding to fill a week, and that’s before you even start tackling big mountain classics.

“Initially our starting place was we wanted to be attractive for half a day’s riding, somewhere you would definitely say it’s good to come for the morning,” Barry says. “We now think we’ve got at least enough for a good day, and we’re building towards enough trails to fill out an entire weekend.”

Head to www.bikeglenlivet.co.uk or the Glenlivet Facebook page for more information.