Scotland is a good place for mountain biking. That’s an accepted fact, on a par with the earth being round. In the Borders, the Tweed Valley exerts a tractor-beam-like pull for riders coming up from England or down from Edinburgh. Fort William has the name recognition from hosting the World Cup, with lift-accessed riding. The trails on the west coast are justifiably raved about, as is the remote singletrack in the Highlands.
But not every region of the country gets the same share of the limelight. Aberdeenshire? Despite being bordered by a major city on one side and the Cairngorms on the other, for many years it only seemed to have one semi-official mountain biking venue, Pitfichie Forest, which has hosted downhill events since the early 2000s. While there were local riders building other below-the-radar trails, the unofficial network didn’t create much of a buzz around the area, or boost visitor numbers beyond a small handful of adventurous types.