For anyone too far away from Wales, this has to be Heaven on Earth. Aside from the odd numb-brained pedestrianite and maybe lost MTBer, these trails offer you the almost perfect riding scenario with nothing to bump into but natural things.

Of the trails we've tackled so far, we haven't been disappointed with any of them, each having at least a couple of unique features to hold your interest.

We stayed in the Youth Hostel at Minnigaff near Newton Stewart on our first trip to the Stanes in 2003, without even knowing they existed! Here's Michael, David, Ernie, Pat, Dave and Colin and the wing of Dean's car (yes, he was there - a complete set of MidAirMen at the time!)  Unfortunately, we couldn't do our planned route as there was a major car rally taking place in the forest on the day we tried to get in, so we had to divert! We did find Kirroughtree before it had any proper trails laid and swore we'd be back to see it - very, very much worth waiting for, as it proved this Easter.