The Story of Tarland Trails – A DMBinS Perspective

In 2012, Scottish Government and sportscotland launched a new funding programme, ‘Legacy 2014 Active Places Fund’, to develop infrastructure to help create a legacy from the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow in 2014.

This fund was really beneficial to the new direction for Scottish mountain biking being led by DMBinS, especially in areas where a cluster was created. Following the success in Tayside and Fife, two new clusters were established in Central and Highland regions with £5.5m of trails and pump tracks developed through the funds.

The early pioneer of community led trail building in Aberdeenshire was Dale Kitching who worked tirelessly, without a great deal of support, and was successful in securing funding through Active Places and other sources to create the Aboyne Bike Park.

Inspired by Dale’s work, a local teacher, Chris Redmond, felt that his local community, Tarland, would benefit from the creation of an additional trail network. Chris worked hard to source funding (including from the Active Places fund) and with the support of Tarland Development Group, created Tarland Trails Drummy Woods. The trail network was an immediate success with children, young people, new riders, and families with many travelling across Aberdeenshire (and beyond) to develop their skills in a safe, fun, and progressive trail network which has a blue trail, red trail, an ‘easy’ orange graded jump line, and a small natural surface pump track.

This was not the end of Chris’s ambition. He also sourced funding for a feasibility study into a larger trail network at Pittenderich Forest on the East of Tarland.

With successful clusters running successfully now in some areas across Scotland, DMBinS saw the potential to support the development of mountain biking in Aberdeenshire. To begin the process, a small collaboration was formed with the architecture department of Robert Gordon University. In February 2015, the university hosted an evening with DMBinS and Forestry and Land Scotland to look at some examples of trail centre trailhead facilities and, more importantly, understand if there was desire from the local riding scene and community to improve their region and meet the established demand of a regional level trail centre.

It was immediately clear there was a motivated community with the desire, and skills, to develop their area. DMBinS were keen to support them, and a cluster was formed.

With the cluster now formed and meeting on a quarterly basis, DMBinS were able to bring people together to understand the appetite for future development. With enthusiastic representatives from local communities, businesses, Aberdeenshire Council, and local cycling clubs all involved.

Such was the level of enthusiasm, and the scale of the opportunity, that it was clear that the region would benefit from a full-time post to support and co-ordinate development.

Following the success of a similar post and funding structure in the Tweed Valley, Scottish Enterprise indicated that they would match fund a project as long as it could be supplemented by EU Leader funding.

The Head of DMBinS, Graeme McLean, worked tirelessly through a frustratingly long and bureaucratic process which included many, many redrafts of applications, multiple budget revisions, and over 70 pieces of supporting evidence to secure the funding for the post. But it was worth it, when in June 2018 DMBinS announced that Will Clarke would take up the post of Aberdeenshire MTB Development Co-ordinator – the first role of its kind in Aberdeenshire.

To create a holistic approach, the project and its development plan was devised around 4 of the 5 areas of the national MTB strategic framework: Facilities, Events, Business Development, and Attracting Visitors.

Will’s job was community focussed and engaged from the start with in his first week there were well attended sessions engaging both the local MTB community and businesses. Following those sessions, Will then met with all the cluster members, including Tarland Trails, and local businesses and began exploring the hopes, dreams, aspirations and project plans to realise their various projects.

In August 2018, Aberdeenshire hosted one of three ‘Talk About Trails’ evenings which were community engagement sessions ran by DMBinS in partnership with Scottish National Access Forum and Forestry and Land Scotland to discuss unauthorised trail building and support the development of the ‘Unauthorised Mountain Bike Trails - A Guide for Land Managers and Riders' guidance. At this meeting it was clear that there were several members of the community who were keen to support a Trails Association in the area to help land managers and owners manage trails across the region. From this meeting, and with Will’s support, the Aberdeenshire Trail Association was formed.

Around this time DMBinS and colleagues in Scottish Cycling were working, and feeding into EventScotland and Scottish Government, to a bid to host the world’s largest cycling event which was part of the then newly appointed UCI President, David Lappartient, vision for the sport moving forward. Scottish Cycling lobbied hard that if a bid was successful then a fund should be created to support purpose built cycling facilities across Scotland. The bid was successful and Scottish Cycling got their wish with £8m of funding from Scottish Government through Transport Scotland and sportscotland through National Lottery, forming the Cycling Facilities Fund – this is important later on.

Back to Tarland though, as part of the cluster Tarland were supported to further develop their plans, including securing planning permission, and began engaging with a local construction company who were keen to expand their trail building part of their business, CRC Trails.

As the Scottish Enterprise and EU Leader funding was coming to an end, well the funding not the world of administration (another story), the project had caught the attention of Opportunity North East (ONE). ONE is, to quote their website, ‘the private sector driver diversifying north east Scotland's economy.’ They were keen that the significant progress made by mountain biking was continued. However after extensive research into the opportunities they were keen that whilst mountain biking would remain a key driver and activity, the project needed to be wider and encompass all adventure activities, with a focus on Bike, Snow & Hike. North East Adventure Tourism (NEAT) was created with staff remaining in the employment of Scottish Cycling and being lined managed and supported by DMBinS.

NEAT formed a steering group comprised of industry experts and staff from key project partners to oversee project delivery and support development of a business case for circa £23m of investment into exemplar low-carbon adventure tourism infrastructure, industry and skills development, destination promotion, and growing the sector through collaboration.

On November 29th, 2021, Storm Arwen hit Scotland, causing widespread devastation, particularly to forests, across Scotland. The trails were severely affected, with windblown trees strewn across several of our key destinations.

The area worst affected by the storm was the North East of Scotland. Through the NEAT strategic partnership we were able to identify that this was a significant risk to local businesses who had been investing, growing, and developing their business over the last few years.

The partnership, through Scottish Enterprise, approached Scottish Government to understand if they could support both in the short term and to help develop infrastructure that would be more robust and secure than the current network of natural/wild trails across the region.

£400,000 worth of funding was secured from the Scottish Government to be invested into mountain bike trails and help the clean-up effort. The one caveat was that it needed to be spent by end of March 2022.

£50k was granted to DMBinS, through Scottish Cycling, to tender for a Forest Works Manager to undertake clearing trails and sub-contracting trail builders to build new replacement trails with Aberdeenshire Trails Association (ATA) and Forestry and Land Scotland.

With Tarland Development Group’s ‘Tarland Trails 2 – Pittenderich’ proposal for a regional level trail centre being identified within the NEAT business case as being a strategic priority and with existing planning permission in place it was decided that all partners would pull together to see if the remaining £350k of funding offered by the Scottish Government could make the proposal happen. There was one other caveat – the £350k to be spent by March 2022 would need match funding or it couldn’t be awarded – step forward the Cycling Facilities Fund (CFF).

Tarland Development Group had put forward an expression of interest for the CFF when it was announced and submitted an application to the fund which was deferred due to the lack of match funding.

Over the first 3 months of 2022, all project partners put an extraordinary effort into community consultation, landowner negotiations, funding applications, funding panel meetings, liaising between funders and partners, and developing tender proposals.

sportscotland, who work with Scottish Cycling/DMBinS to manage the CFF, but are the grant/funding providers were extremely helpful both at a local level and nationally where they organised Tarland specific funding panels and did everything they could to ensure the match funding, and all the funding for the project, would not be lost. Nearly £300,000 from the CFF was secured and Tarland was GO!

Chris Redmond, and Tarland Development Group, who are all members of the community put in a (frankly) unbelievable amount of time, effort, and stress. They also ran a hugely successful crowd funding campaign (once the build had begun) where the community raised £27,000 and the groups were also successful in securing a further £100,000 from the Rural & Island Communities: Ideas into Action Fund.

After a successful tender process, CRC Trails, were on site by March 2022 to begin the development of the project.

Working with Chris, Tarland Development Group, and DMBinS/NEAT, CRC Trails presented an exciting vision for a modern trail centre that would build a new set of flow trails that hadn’t been built before in Scotland.

Over the next year, CRC Trails working with largely local staff began implementing the trail network. It was clear that although the existing budget of circa £700k would develop the car park, supporting infrastructure (toilets), and a first phase of trails, additional investment was needed to grow the trail network and attract more riders.

NEAT approached ‘Just Transition’ funding, a fund set up to support the transformation of the economy of Aberdeen City and Aberdeen Shire, to get funding for additional trails. The bid was successful and circa another £215k of funding was granted to Tarland Trails to develop additional trails. Funding for the trails now topped over 1 million pounds! (£1.1mill to be exact)

The trail centre was looking fantastic and its profile was being raised including a site visit for international trail builders as part of the Scottish Mountain Bike Conference 2022.

In May 2023, Tarland Trails opened to riders to great acclaim with fantastic reviews and a full car park. The weather was sunny and dry and the trails were living up to the large hype they were receiving.

The trails were officially opened with a weekend long celebration with a partners event where DMBinS/NEAT worked with Chris and Tarland Development Group to bring together all the key funders including Opportunity North East, Scottish Enterprise, sportscotland, Scottish Government, and Aberdeenshire Council together to officially open the trail centre.

However, with a touch that symbolises the approach of all partners involved, it wasn’t the funders, or even the community, that opened the trails. That job was given to young riders from the local area who will now have a great set of trails to enjoy for their entire lifetime – helping them have happier, healthier, and wealthier lives (if they choose to live in the area).

The first year has seen well in excess of 40,000 riders visit the trails.

The trails have provided additional income to the Tarland Development Group who have used that income to ensure the trails and facilities are sustainable and they have employed two part-time trail maintenance co-ordinators, a cleaner and social media staff.

The trails have also meant that the Scottish Cross-Country Series (SXC) returned to the North-East for a very successful event and the trail centre has also hosted an enduro ran by Doon ThaBrae Events and a demo weekend ran by locally based (Banchory) bike shop 20TwentyStore.

Young people, and the trails, both benefited from the DMBinS/NEAT Trail Academy, with coaches from CRC Trails and Aberdeenshire Trail Association leading the trail works. Trail Academy: Aberdeenshire was able to visit Tarland Trails and see first hand the scale of commercial building at Tarland and how correct maintenance can ensure trails are sustained for longer. The young people who were recruited from local schools, even benefited from some skills coaching input from ‘Dialled In Coaching’, who was part of the CRC initial build team, and has some creative line choices to teach his clients.

The Trail Academy demonstrates how trails can be used to help engage young people in learning and provide pathways to employment, with one of the young people who took part in the programme being offered a summer job with CRC Trails.

The need to continually evolve and improve the trail centre is being supported through the partnership between Tarland Development Group, DMBinS/NEAT, and funders.

In its opening year the partnership helped secure a further £200k for a new blue graded trail ‘Rip Tide’ and ground works which means the site has water and other services at its disposal. In total, over the last 18 months the partnership has helped Tarland Development Group secure £1.4million to help establish Tarland, and Aberdeenshire, as a premier mountain bike destination. (Running total which includes with Drummy Woods and Pittenderich)

With such a major development it could be assumed that Tarland has taken all the time and effort of DMBinS/NEAT regional staff, Scottish Cycling colleagues, and sportscotland facilities team. However, through the model of structured and quality support to amazing community groups the area has secured CFF funding for the following projects:

In addition to these CFF Funded projects the team at DMBinS/NEAT have helped Huntly Development Group secure £450,000 for a pump track and a wider site development project incorporating changing rooms and improving their water sports provision.

Aberdeen City and Shire have done well as an area from CFF however it was an area with a large community, strong bike clubs, good support from local authorities, external partners, and (importantly) it had very few existing facilities.

As shown by all the activity in only its first year of operation, there is enthusiasm from Tarland Development Group (and Chris), and partners across the North East including Opportunity North East and the other partners of the NEAT steering group.

One of the first immediate tasks will be to install a bike wash into the trail centre. However, the ambition doesn’t stop at supporting infrastructure, everyone is keen to keep refreshing and evolving the trail network, including exploring options for more ‘natural’ trail creation and there is ambition for more ‘flow’ trails.

Tarland Development Group are also in the midst of engaging the community through a consultation for improvements to the trail hub. This project may even go full circle with students from Robert Gordon University designing, this time (potentially) for real, the hub buildings.

Overall, there is a lot of momentum for the development of mountain biking, and wider adventure sports, in Aberdeenshire. The approach, and spirit, of collaboration and partnership working will be the key for the area to reach its potential. DMBinS/NEAT will be doing their best to help it to happen.

Tarland Development Group (including the full committee led by Chris Redmond)

sportscotland (including/especially the Facilities Team – Grant Duncan)

North East Adventure Tourism

Opportunity North East

Aberdeenshire Council

Scottish Enterprise

Rural & Island Communities: Ideas into Action Fund

Local businesses (both in Tarland and the bike industry in Aberdeenshire)