Dailly

Dalquharran house Dailly

Thought about going over to Bute yesterday but was a bit slow in getting out of bed so that was a non starter, instead Graham and I went down to Crosshill to do a loop over the moor to Dailly.
Half way over the moor road, after a 2 mile warm up climbing on the road and a miles rough stuff there's a quarry on the left of the track.
The quarriers dug out the limestone strata at a steep angle so the workings are filled with water but its still a nice feature to visit just a few yards off the track, an excuse for a breather.

On the way down the trail there's a loop off left shortly after the gate, its a push at the start but it leads to a lovely view point and some great singletrack in the woods, definitely worth the detour.
If you go that way and don't do this loop your not a mountain biker.

After the singletrack we made the mistake of following the trail across the main road into the fields by the river, don't' do it its rubbish, just stick to the road into Dailly.
At Tilly's tea room in Dailly we stopped of for coffee and cake, you need to be assertive to get served here, the owner is far too busy gossipping to pay attention to customers so just go up to the counter, get between her and whoever she's talking to and ask politely for what you want, that seems to work OK.

After Tilly's we tackled the climb to Quarrel Hill and Glenshalloch/Craigfin woods.
The first bit is OK but then it just keeps going up, one of these hills that doesn't look much but eventually your in the granny gear, it just keeps going up and up.
Eventually though we got our reward with some lovely track down Craigfin wood, lovely (sometimes muddy) singletrack through a bluebell wood.
We got back to Crosshill after four hours cycling on some great trails, absolutely fabulous stuff, go there and enjoy it!

Route description here

Video of the day here

Some photos from around the area here.