Black Trails

Glentress is hugely popular, and with good reason. Situated just an hour outside of Edinburgh, in the Tweed Valley, it’s home to 73km of waymarked trails, with something to suit every ability. Further adding to Glentress’s appeal is the fact it can be combined with a visit to Innerleithen, its 7Stanes sister centre just down the road.

Coed Llandegla covers a massive 650 hectares and has a good selection of fast and flowing trails, from a mellow green route right up to a challenging black, plus a skills and freeride area. There are also a number of optional loops, such as ‘Parallel Universe’ and ‘B Line’, which are steeper and more-downhill orientated, and should keep more experienced riders happy.

Nant yr Arian isn’t too far from Aberystwyth and offers riding in the mountains and woodland just inland. The centre’s renowned for great singletrack and you have plenty of chance to enjoy it on the black route, Syfydrin, which is a long one at 35km. It’s rugged, remote riding out here, so make sure you’re prepared for every possibility of weather or mechanicals.

Coed y Brenin was the first forest to be developed for mountain biking back in 1997 and it’s still one of Britain’s best trail centres. It has an ever-increasing network of all-weather singletrack trails, from a short green to the 38km Beast of Brenin, and they’ve just been awarded funding to extend the blue-graded Minortaur. Six of the eight trails are graded red or black, so there’s plenty for more experienced riders to get their teeth into. There’s a well-stocked bike shop on site and a big cafe too.

Dalby Forest is one of the bigger trail centres in England. It's got everything from green family trails to black-graded XC loops and a bike park area. The 34.3km red trail is a big undertaking, but it can be split into three distinct sections that can be ridden on their own, with green and blue options to take you back to the start point if you don't fancy the whole thing. It also gives you the option to hit the awesome blue-graded descent. If you fancy a weekend trip to the area, then also try out Sutton Bank trail centre, which is just 26 miles away.

Named after the nearby main road, Gloucestershire's 417 Bike Park is a veritable MTB playground. The rolling fields of this Cotswolds farm are filled with surfaced flow trails, rugged rock gardens and jumps, all of which are uplift-accessed. Besides the main trails, there's no shortage of airtime opportunities with 4X and dual slalom tracks, a field of dirt jumps and barns housing more dirt jumps and a tarmac pump track. This all makes the 417 Bike Park an ideal place to hone your skills.

Rostrevor is located on the scenic banks of Carlingford Loch, in the Kilbroney Forest Park. There’s a great mix of trails here, albeit with nothing suitable for beginner mountain bikers. If you want to make a whole weekend of riding you can also visit the Castlewellan, Davagh Forest and Three Rock trailcentres, which are all within a couple of hours’ drive.

Afan boasts over 130km of well-maintained trails, with everything from flowing singletrack to rock gardens. It’s more suited to experienced riders but there are a couple of short, easy trails too. There are two centres at Afan, giving you a choice of trailheads to begin at. Glyncorrwg is the main one and is the start point for White’s Level and Blade. The Afan Visitor Centre is home to Blue Scar, Penhydd and The Wall. W2 can be ridden from either centre. There’s a bike park situated part way round The Wall, which can also be accessed by car.

Home to ‘McMoab’, a huge granite outcrop reached by traversing slabs and boulder causeways, Kirroughtree has some fantastic natural features that make for a unique ride. A new blue/red trail section has been added this year – ‘Kirri Crossover’, 500m of sheer delight that twists up above the Bruntis Loch and drops down through a series of berms to link back to the original trail.

The beautiful Brechfa Forest is home to some great natural-feeling trails. Two of them, a green with a blue extension and a black, start at the Byrgwm car park and the third, a red, begins at Abergorlech. To fuel your ride, there are plenty of local pubs – The Forest Arms is now open in Brechfa village or there’s The Black Lion in Abergorlech, both of which offer excellent grub. There’s another red trail, Cwm Rhaeadr, about 20 miles north of Brechfa, which has a fantastic long singletrack descent.

BikePark Wales is the UK’s first full-scale mountain bike park, with 32 gravity-fed trails that you don’t need a DH bike to enjoy. The runs vary from green to black and have been built in sections down the hillside, so you can link them together in various combos. If you want to pedal up via the singletrack or fireroad, entry costs £8, or for £32.50 (midweek, £38 at weekends)* you can get driven to the top all day. The new Root Manoeuvres trail is their longest and most technical red (2.5km), combining gnarly rock sections with black split lines and rooty off-camber sections, plus some bar-dragging berms.

Situated in the beautiful Snowdonia National Park, Antur Stiniog is a dedicated downhill centre with seven trails to choose from, graded from blue to double black. It’s a formidable location opposite a huge slate quarry, so expect lots of rock slabs on the open hillside. The newest trail is the black graded Bendy-G, packed full of switchbacking berms. You can get in up to 20 runs a day on the uplift service, so the only thing stopping you will be your energy levels!

On the edge of the wild North Pennines, the trails at Hamsterley Forest are cut into a steep-sided valley hidden in 2,000 hectares of woodland. There are three XC routes, totalling more than 30km of flowing singletrack, which are looked after by the Hamsterley Trailblazers volunteer group. The latest addition is K-Line – a red descent peppered with jumps. There’s also a playground of DH trails, the Descend Bike Park, which is run by 2016 world champ Danny Hart, who grew up riding here.