Strathfillan Community Bike Skills Park

Aim

Help us design a challenging and fun bike skills park in our beautiful Community Woodland.

Strathfillan Community Bike Skills Park

How it started

Strathfillan is a stunning part of Scotland, with mountains, rivers and lochs galore, but accessing them is not easy - especially for the young folk of the area. A busy main road and a lack of safe play areas means that many of our children do not get to enjoy the great outdoors as much as they should - even though it's on their doorstep! 

A feasibility study commissioned by ourselves, Strathfillan Community Development Trust, in 2017 suggested we improve our biking infrastructure. We then asked  our community, through our Facebook page, if they would like a bike skills park - there was a resounding 'YES', with over 60 positive responses and 3,000 views.

The Bike Park

With the completion of the first part of the Tyndrum to Crianlarich Cycle Path in 2017 (it's only taken 20 years!), we now have the opportunity to access a safe area where we can create a fantastic new Bike Skills Park. Having identified a site the community, including the local school and nursery, plan to work with professional track designers to create an inclusive, challenging, and fun plan. It will be multi-aged and multi-skilled, catering for as many tastes and abilities as possible. We have the chance to design a superb bike skills park for the local community and for visitors to the area, and we need your help to achieve it.

How the Bike Park will help Strathfillan's Community:

The Strathfillan Community Bike Skills Park will provide fun, challenging and healthy outdoor exercise for our children. Although we live in a beautiful, rural part of Scotland, a very busy main road and a lack of other routes means it is very difficult for our young people to get out and enjoy it - especially by bike. Our community as a whole is very small and spread out and it is difficult for people to socialise informally. Having a meeting place where people can easily and safely walk and cycle to is essential. The Bike Skills Park will help children and young adults to see each other more easily; it will help mums and dads, grannies and granpa's meet up and catch-up; it will help mums and dads spend healthy, fun time with their children; our children might discover new skills and talents that they never knew they had - perhaps the next generation of Danny Macaskill's are waiting in Strathfillan!

With our new cycle path children and young adults can get out more, and  the Bike Skills Park will give them opportunities to get more exercise,  learn new skills, and socialise more easily. But, without a great design it can never happen!

Economy:

Strathfillan includes the small villages of Tyndrum, Crianlarich and Inverarnan, and is located at the northern end of the popular Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. We have a small population of 400, however during the summer months this expands massively. With the West Highland Way and several local Munro's we are a popular tourist destination. Despite this we are lacking in family friendly infrastructure to attract and 'keep' visitors. We are known as a 'pee and tea' stop!

By creating this Bike Skills Park we will provide more for people of all ages to do, making Strathfillan a more attractive place to go on holiday. We can hold various outdoor and biking events, and even look to host interest groups and organisations that would utilise the tracks. This will mean the bike skills park can help support small local businesses, many of which rely on tourism - such as hostels, hotels, campsites, cafes and inns. This could ensure more jobs, securer jobs, and more financial security for the families who live here.

How you can help

The design for the Bike Skills Park will be 10,000 pounds, and will include local children and young people working closely with a professional team. We plan to finance most of the design through grant funding and contributions from our local Community Gain Fund, so we are looking to you for the last 2,000 pounds. It's not cheap, but it's definitely worth it!

Please donate as little or as much as you can - every penny will go to the design of the park. We will keep you updated regularly with our progress of both funding and the design of the park. You can find out more about Strathfillan Community Development Trust on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StrathfillanCommunity/. Or email our Development Officer Kelly at [email protected].

We really hope you can support us.

Thank you!

From Kelly and all at Strathfillan Community Development Trust

This project successfully funded on 22nd August 2018