Blue Trails

Sherwood Pines Forest Park mustn’t be confused with Sherwood Forest – there’s much more riding at the former. Fast woodland singletrack is the order of the day, with a couple of purpose-built XC loops, over 45km of unmarked trails (keep your eyes peeled!), a skills area and a bike park complete with a set of dirt jumps. The centre sits right on National Cycle Network Route 6 so it’s easy to get to by bike.

Mabie offers green, blue and red routes as well as a skills area with a 300m freeride line. ‘The Dark Side’, a trail composed of technical North Shore woodwork, is now permanently closed, but there’s still plenty of magnificent singletrack to sample in this scenic forest.

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.

With the trailhead situated at the square in the centre of the village, Newcastleton is a great place to head to for a day out. None of the trails are overly difficult, but they have a real ‘out in the wilds’ feel.

Just a stone’s throw from London, and a lesson in balancing leisure interests (there’s a Go Ape! ropes course here too, as well as plenty of walkers), Swinley Forest is evolving as a trail centre. Green, blue and red XC routes totalling 24.2km have been built thanks to investment from The Crown Estate, and some skills progression sections are being added this year. Why not check out the trails on one of the group rides organised by Swinley Forest Hub, after which you can enjoy one of their infamous BBQs?

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.

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.

Gisburn lies in the Forest of Bowland, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so you're guaranteed some amazing scenery as you enjoy the trails. There's an easy blue route and slightly harder and longer red XC route, neither of which will leave you feeling disappointed. Both start from the Gisburn Forest Hub car park, where you'll also find a cafe and skills loop. Further into the forest there are two DH trails with berms, jumps and drop-offs. If you fancy challenging yourself, why not take on the Forestry Commission's Super 6 challenge? This involves riding the six most northerly English trail centres - Kielder, Chopwell, Whinlatter, Hamsterley, Griezdale and Gisburn.

Fort William’s Nevis Range is famed as a World Cup venue and all three race courses (DH, XC and 4X) are open to the public to ride. There are also skills loops, XC trails and green and blue descents accessed from the forest road. If you really want to test your skills, you can jump on the gondola to ride The Red Giant, a singletrack descent packed with 543m of gravity-fed fun, or take on the ultimate challenge – the World Cup downhill track!

Ae Forest is a legendary downhill race venue and there are two DH tracks – one natural and tech, and the other more jumpy and flowing. It also has three XC loops – a green, a blue and a red, the latter of which is a challenging one, at 24km. With such a varied blend of trails for both beginners and more experienced riders, along with a new uplift service, Ae has something for everyone.

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!

Located near the coast, Dalbeattie has a great range of tracks given that there isn’t a huge amount of elevation to be found. The most famous feature is a 14m-high lump of granite called The Slab – venture onto the red-graded Hardrock trail and you’ll soon find yourself rolling down it. The expanses of rock really define the riding here.

The Steel City is a hive of MTB activity, with advocacy group Ride Sheffield using the collective might of the riding community to preserve, improve and promote access for mountain bikers. There are three distinct areas, all close to the city, that are worth checking out, with everything from mellow blue trails to challenging descents. There are also some techy DH trails in Wharncliffe Woods on the opposite side of the road to Greno Woods, but we recommend going with a local the first time as they can be tricky to find.

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.

It may be just a stone’s throw from the M5, but this woodland mountain bike sanctuary succeeds in making you feel like you’ve been transported to deepest, darkest Devon. There are several waymarked trails, as well as some off-piste singletrack if you know where to look. The red-graded Ridge Ride begins with a flat and then downhill start, at odds with many UK trail centres. It’s great fun, but make sure you’re warmed up first – you can do this in the skills area by the car park.

Northern Ireland has a growing network of trail centres and Davagh Forest is one of the best. There’s a gentle green, a twisty blue and a rocky red trail, plus a skills area with green to red-graded features and a pump track. Davagh may be out in the sticks but it’s well worth a visit, offering spades of flow on naturally-sculpted trails.