Whitelee Mountain Bike Trails

Whitelee Mountain Bike Trails sit within Whitelee Windfarm, the UK's largest onshore wind farm, around ten miles south of Glasgow. The purpose-built trail centre at Brown Hill offers roughly 4km of blue graded singletrack arranged as linked Inner and Outer Loops, with optional red graded technical sections, plus a dedicated skills loop and pump track, all free to ride any time of year. The windfarm's own network of over 130km of gravel access roads also makes for one of Scotland's best gravel and family cycling days out from the same car park.

The Trails

• The dedicated mountain bike facility sits within Brown Hill, a former quarry site about 500m from Whitelee Visitor Centre.
• The Outer Loop and Inner Loop are blue graded and interconnect, giving around 4km of fast, flowing singletrack with berms and rollers. Optional red graded technical trail features are worked into both loops, including rock gardens, drop-offs and a log ride, so riders can bypass or opt into the harder lines as they choose.
• A skills loop at the western end of the site packs the same style of technical features into a short, condensed circuit for building bike handling and technique.
• The pump track sits at the eastern end of the site: a tightly packed circuit of rollers and berms designed to be ridden by pumping rather than pedalling.
• A picnic and shelter area at the start and finish of the trails gives riders and spectators somewhere to meet up between laps.
• The trails and facilities are free to use at any time, 365 days a year, and are maintained by East Renfrewshire Council's Whitelee Countryside Ranger Service.

Gravel Riding

• Beyond the Brown Hill singletrack, Whitelee Windfarm has over 130km of wide, well-surfaced gravel access roads open to walkers, cyclists and horse riders, running out from the same Visitor Centre car park across the whole site.
• Every turbine is numbered on the ground and on the free map available from the Visitor Centre, which makes route-finding straightforward, though it is still worth downloading a route or using GPS navigation before you set off given the size of the network.
• This is a genuinely different ride to the MTB trails: mostly flat, wide forest road gradients suited to gravel bikes, hybrids and families, with some steeper sections of old forest road offering more of a challenge.
• As a working windfarm and commercial forest, some tracks are subject to temporary access restrictions for safety or maintenance work, so check East Renfrewshire Council's Whitelee access restrictions page before you travel.

Getting Here

• Whitelee Windfarm Visitor Centre, Moor Road (B764), Eaglesham, G76 0QQ. Free parking is available at the Visitor Centre car park, which is the recommended access point for both the MTB trails and the wider windfarm network.
• From Glasgow: take the M77 towards Kilmarnock and leave at Junction 6 (Galston), then follow the brown tourist signs for Whitelee Windfarm Visitor Centre.
• From Ayrshire: take the A77 towards Glasgow and follow the brown tourist signs for Whitelee Windfarm Visitor Centre.
• Informal roadside parking exists on some of the single track public roads around the windfarm, but these roads are narrow with soft verges, so the Visitor Centre car park is the better option.
• There is no direct public transport to the Visitor Centre. The nearest train station is Hairmyres in East Kilbride and the nearest bus stop is in Eaglesham, both of which need onward private transport to reach the site.

Beyond the Trails

• Whitelee Visitor Centre, run by Glasgow Science Centre, has interactive exhibits about the windfarm, a cafe serving food from local suppliers, free WiFi, a solar powered EV charging canopy and a covered bike shed. Check the Visitor Centre website for current opening times before you travel.
• An electric bus tour of the turbines runs from the Visitor Centre, and rangers from the Whitelee Countryside Ranger Service run a programme of guided walks and events across the site.
• The windfarm's heather moorland is home to breeding golden plover and dunlin, with hen harrier, merlin, peregrine and red grouse also recorded, so keep an eye out on quieter rides.

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