Purple Trails

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.

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.

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.