mtb trip in the UK

Ami

Hi everyone,

My name is Amitai and i'm a 24 years old mountain biker from Israel.

I'm coming to the UK on the 31/08 for a 15 days mtb trip around the main trail centers in the north of england, south scotland and wales.

I have a general plan for my trip, but will be happy to get your advises to make it even better!

this is the plan right now - pleas tell me if you think I should change something, and also will be glad to get your recommendations about nice places to visit or nice pubs and other cool things in my trip route.. thanks!

Day 1 - landing in Manchester
Day 2 - c*ck hill bike park - night at Ambleside
Day 3 - Grizedale. night at Ambleside
Day 4 - Whinlatter. night at Dumfries
Day 5 - Mabie or Kirroughtree. night at Dumfries
Day 6 - Ae forest. night Edinburgh
Day 7 - Edinburgh (not riding)
Day 8 - tweed valley or Kielder Forest Park. night - ?
Day 9 - Hamsterley Forest. night -?
Day 10 - Yorkshire Dales - night - ?
Day 11 - Langsett or Stanage Edge (or both). night - somewher in wales
Day 12 - wales bike park. night - ?
Day 13 - Forest of Dean. night - ?
Day 14 - oxford (not riding)
Day 15 - flight back

frankspencer1979

Wow, that seems like a big undertaking. Can't advise on a lot of it, but here's a start.

I'm not sure about Cock Hill but the Lake District is a good starting destination. I would consider going to a bike shop and enquiring about the Borrowdale Bash in order to see more of the natural side!

Likewise at Grizedale, go in the bike shop and see if they can show you the other riding around the forest apart from the red route there.

Whinlatter is well worth a visit.

Try Youth Hostel at Keswick and/or Ambleside for accomodation, both are nice.

For Yorkshire dales : http://www.dalesbikecentre.co.uk/

For Wales you could stay up north and do Coed y Brenin and Antur Stiniog across 2 days.

Good luck, I hope your legs hold out, I have a feeling you're going to be knackered!

UH DH

Ok, your choice between Mabie and Kirroughtree.

Mabie has probably 1 trail you'd be able to do, takes a couple of hours. There's a few fun bits but nothing spectacular. The big thing there was the Darkside, but that has been out of action for years now. Kirroughtree has got 2 main trails that are fairly good, but you also have t get there, and it's quite a bit along the coast.

My suggestion there would be to cut out the plan for day 5, and do Ae on that day, and because it's not too bad of a trail and close to Dumfries, you'll be finished early. Go through Edinburgh and take the A9 north. Glenlivet, up in the Cairngorms. It's about 3hrs north of Edinburgh. There's a nice hostel at Tomintoul, The Smugglers Hostel (www.thesmugglershostel.co.uk), and ride Glenlivet. Personally I rate it as one of the best and most fun trails in Scotland for xc. Return via Braemar and back to Edinburgh to get a taste of the Cairngorms on the way through. It is a big detour, but if you have the time is well worth it.

As for Tweed Valley or Kielder, depends what you like. Tweed Valley is very good, but between Glentress and Innerleithen, you might want more than a day there, but it tends to be busy at weekends. My recommendation there, if you didn't want to do the Glenlivet thing, is to still skip Mabie and Kirroughtree, do Ae on Day 5, Glentress on Day 6, then Innerleithen on Day 8. They have Cabins at Glentress, and it's 30min drive to Edinburgh, so it may be worth just staying in one place for 3 nights. Plus, being actually at the trails means you can just roll back down the hill to the cabin, so there's the opportunity to do more riding without worrying about a drive after.

Kielder on the other hand is rough. A lot of the trails there are a long way from the village, some are badly waymarked, but when I rode there I didn't see another person on the trails. So depends what you're looking for really.

Either way, sounds like a fun trip, so good luck with it.

stubs

Cockhill is only open weekends and you need to book. If your landing 31st Aug thats a monday.