Wild is the wind
Wind farms aren’t just powering our net zero future, they’re offering superb gravel rides in the present
Wind is priced into a British bike ride. While you might be lucky enough to ride with the absence of wind on a handful of days each year, the question really is about the severity of it. Outings where flags sag around their poles and smoke rises in a perfect vertical line seldom happen. To borrow a well-worn football analogy, our usually circular routes are a game of two halves, with the wind blowing into your face as often as it’s giving a helping hand on your back. How many of us would say we enjoy the wind? Other than the riders of the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team, carving up the Spring Classics in Belgium, I’d imagine it’s few. But how many of us can also honestly say that we’ve no wind-assisted segment records on our Strava profiles? Wind is at the same time our worst enemy and best friend.
Speaking of friends, and moving beyond bike rides, wind is a strong ally in our fight to save the planet – and our pockets. Harnessing its power to produce an increasing amount of our country’s energy is a well established business across the UK, both on land and at sea. Data from the Office for National Statistics say that electricity production from wind in the UK grew by 715 per cent between 2009 and 2020, and in 2020 wind energy accounted for 24 per cent of total electricity generation. Almost half of that is generated on land, rather than at sea, and it’s this that’s been of particular interest to me of late when it comes to riding my bike.
These massive wind turbines need substantial infrastructure, especially access roads, and it’s these remote, unpaved roads that have long appealed to me as a gravel rider. I live in central Scotland, at the base of the Ochil Hills above Edinburgh and Glasgow, a place that, like so much of the country’s rural landscape, has a smattering of wind farm sites crying out for bike exploration. And a story for Cycling Plus was the perfect excuse…
Wind finders
My riding partner John and I would often gaze up at the turbines just to check the wind direction. We’d not yet cycled up to them -Green Knowes wind farm to the east and Burnfoot Hill to the west – but seeing others doing just that we decided it was time to see what the fuss was about. We set about plotting a 55km circuit to take us through both sites and, given their lofty locations, it was no great surprise to find a route with a more than solid 1,400 metres of ascent.
Our ride started from my home village of Dollar in Clackmannanshire, about 10 miles east of Stirling, and one of several villages lying at the southern base of the Ochils, collectively known as the Hillfoots. There are three things you can be certain of living here: death, taxes and knowing you’ll begin any ride with a stiff climb into the Hillfoots.
Despite a main road tarmac alternative, we clung to the off-road focus of our expedition from the start and headed up through Glenquay. This part of the route is managed woodland – meaning it’s managed for timber, conservation and biodiversity – which just so happens to be John’s line of work. The tracks are different to those that service wind farms, with worse drainage leading to more mud, particularly in deepest winter.
Soon enough Green Knowes wind farm hovers into view, the turbines pointing in such a direction as to confirm that today we have a northerly wind. At least today it was a destination in itself, rather than an over-engineered windsock. Opened in 2008, the wind farm’s 18 turbines tear through the air daily.
It contributed to renewables accounting for a huge 97.4 per cent of Scotland’s electricity needs in 2020, with wind, both onshore and off, making up 72 per cent. It’s enough to make you look at that block headwind in a new light.
“We don’t see the wind turbines as scars on the landscape at all, particularly as we navigate the pristine gravel roads in between”
The Ochils have given us both so much pleasure over the years and it’s great to see they are also playing such a fine role in the preservation of the country, and the planet. The widespread, short-sighted gripe about wind turbines is that they are eyesores and scars on the landscape, but we don’t see them that way at all, particularly as we navigate the pristine gravel tracks in between. A place that continues to be hospitable and a grand day out on the bikes –a win-win if ever there was one! Sure, we are making more of the tracks here than most, but they are fully accessible and free to use for the public, so maybe if the antis came up here then minds would be changed. Perhaps this will one day become a land filled with ebikes, of people enjoying this wonderful scenery powered by the turbines through which they weave.
At the highest point, we’re able to spot the second wind farm, Burnfoot Hill, behind us and to the west. It is perhaps closer than the hilly landscape suggests – they’ve a habit of warping distances – but we’re in need of some calories before heading there. Wind might be powering civilisation down below, but up here it’s only sapping ours.
Wind farm access roads provide a quiet route right into the heart of the hills 
Depending how you view them, wind turbines are actually rather beautiful – they certainly beat an electricity pylon any day 
The gate was broken before we tried lifting our bikes over it, honest!
This is local terrain for us, so we know precisely where we need to get to, following a rough quad-bike track for a few hundred metres to join the public footpath between Glendevon and Auchterarder, something we’ve traversed in the past, both on bikes and foot [in Scotland all paths are open to bikes and horses]. From smooth gravel we’re now in grass and mud, clearly frequented by cattle. That well-draining gravel track is now all-too distant a memory as we struggle to keep our bikes rubber-side down on the greasy, gloopy terrain. It’s a relief to make it to Auchterarder, home to the longest main street in Scotland at over a mile long, which offers up no shortage of refuelling options. We opt for a bike shop/ cafe combo, Synergy Cycles, and service both our mechanical and gastronomical needs.
Burn after riding
Now on the north side of the Ochils, more climbing is inevitable. As is often the case with sections of gravel riding, we could have taken the far faster adjacent road option but instead opt for the old drove road, where in days gone by farmers would ‘drive’ -by means of walking behind them with a stick -their cattle to market. With the northerly wind now pushing us onwards, the steady incline and wide grassy track make for swift and pleasing progress. Certainly, John’s 64-year-old vegan-powered frame makes light work of it; I’m carrying more kit than him, but he’s still the stronger rider as he disappears into the distance.
A westwards turn onto a section of unclassified tarmac punches us deep into the Ochils. I’ve come up here with several visitors in the past and, in this seemingly isolated spot, they are always surprised to learn that less than an hour’s drive from here more than three quarters of the Scottish population can be found, in and around the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Having this landscape on our doorstep is something we’ve both long been very grateful for, never more so than during the lockdowns.
With yet more climbing behind us, we arrive at the Burnfoot Hill wind farm, a bigger site with 21 turbines, producing enough energy to power 25,000 homes, and seemingly with potential for more. Green Knowes felt like a site where the access tracks were being used for maintenance, but here, with wider roads, it feels like a much bigger project. Onshore wind farm development is now getting back on track, following a 2015 subsidy cut by the UK government, which made new projects more difficult to fund. The decision was reversed in 2020. In Scotland, the wind is in the sails of onshore developments, with a target to increase energy generation by 8-12 gigawatts by 2030, which even at the lower end of the target is over double the current output.
There are waves all round from the lorry drivers, which is always reassuring in an area so heavy with industry. Clearly, they’ve seen our ilk here before. It’s a super track into the big peaks of the Ochils and, with our bike computers indicating that we’re at 600 metres elevation, we cross a fence and push up to the summit of Ben Buck at 679 metres.
We are now on what I like to refer to as the ‘Ochils plateau’, with peaks stretching out all around us. What great access the wind farm track provides to this wonderful landscape – more people should experience it. Perhaps a bus service could operate, dropping people off for a self-propelled journey back to one of the Hillfoots villages to the south. Walk, run, cycle, ski tour – the possibilities are plenty.
Fast and loose
From Ben Buck’s summit, the options for riding are vast because there are good grassy tracks between all of the peaks. Westwards, the summit of Blairdenon makes for a superb traverse to Sheriffmuir, while eastwards the highest hill in the Ochils, Ben Cleuch at 721 metres, is close and clear. Beyond, we can see the peaks of Andrew Gannel, Tarmangie, Whitewisp, Innerdownie and King’s Seat. The Ochils themselves extend miles eastwards and on into Fife, lessening in height as they do.
On this occasion, with our bellies rumbling yet again, we to take the fast descent to Silver Glen. This is another good wide access track into the hills, but its steep and almost unrideable start makes descending our preferred option. Nevertheless, that same steep start makes for a challenging descent on gravel bikes, with skids aplenty on the loose terrain. We just about manage to find the right balance to get safely down, our ears popping as we go. We lose altitude quickly and are now largely sheltered from the omnipresent wind that has been such a feature of the day. Through the village of Tillicoultry, our ride is all but over, with just a cycle path back to Dollar -a suitably breezy end to a particularly gusty ride.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Getting there
● Dollar lies just to the north of the M8 corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh. From the south take the Clackmannanshire Bridge, and from the north either the A9 to Stirling or the M90 to the Milnathort exit. The nearest train station is Alloa.
Where to eat
● As a local I can recommend the Inn at Dollar (theinnatdollar.com). Polly’s Pantry (pollyspantry.co.uk) is just a 2km gravel ride from Dollar and very bike friendly. Auchterarder is the obvious stop. Its main street has several cafes and the bike shop with cafe that we visited, Synergy Cycles.
More to explore
● The Braes of Doune wind farm track is a superb gravel ride, a loop from Braco taking in Glen Artney with a stop in Callander (komoot.com/tour/696582492). For a truly epic gravel outing combine it with this route.
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Distance 34m/ 55km Elevation 4,715ft / 1,437m Download the route komoot.com/tour/696573924