The UK’s best trails for manmade flow – five must-visit spots once everything reopens
While our usual Trail Crew visits are on pause, here’s our pick of the UK’s best ‘rollercoaster’ trails packed with berms and undulations
GET THERE
Whinlatter is close to Braithwaite on the B5292 (Whinlatter Pass), four miles west of Keswick, in the northern Lake District. The postcode for sat-navs is CA12 5TW. There’s no easy access by train.
FACILITIES
Bike shop, cafe, parking, bike wash, toilets, gift shop, bike hire, skills coaching.
TRAIL STATS
Quercus (blue) 7.5km; Altura (red) 19km, split into 10km and 9km loops.
CONTACT www.forestryengland.uk/whinlatter
Between Reading and the outer reaches of London lies an expansive area of woodland that was once a royal hunting estate. These days you’re more likely to hear the crunch of tyres or the whir of a freehub than the galloping of hooves, because Swinley Forest is home to one of the most popular MTB centres in the country. In the densely populated South East it can sometimes feel hard to escape the crowds, but pedal out on the blue or red route at Swinley and you’ll soon feel lost among the trees.
The scope of the riding here is limited by a lack of big descents or natural features, but the trails make the best of what there is, swooping over crests and diving into valleys, with carving berms and rollers to give you that rollercoaster sensation we all crave. The climbs are short and, because nearly everything is surfaced, it’s an ideal spot for less experienced riders. This isn’t to say there’s nothing for more seasoned mountain bikers though, and if you fall into that category then the flowing gullies and sandy, smooth dirt of the hand-dug Clubhouse Hill trails are the place to go. With a selection of mini DH tracks here, it’s easy to get sucked into doing run after run as you attempt to push it ever faster between the narrowly spaced trees.
Swinley’s other big highlight is The Summit skills area, which opened last year. This 10-acre playground has all the ingredients you need to progress your riding, from the gentlest of green runs to double-over-head-height drops! Once the centre reopens, jump in for an open ride session or book on one of the daily coaching classes.
This Tweed Valley trail nirvana would make it onto this list for its legendary ‘Spooky Wood’ descent alone – a wide, high-speed track packed with turn after turn. However, the loose surface and a few flat sections mean that if it’s minimal pedalling and maximum bumppumping, corner-railing fun that you’re after, you should head over to ‘Berm Baby Berm’ and then continue on down the blue run. This is great for relative beginners when ridden slowly, but up the pace a bit and it becomes a wild ride where you can push the limits of grip in every turn – just be sure to keep an eye out for less experienced riders ahead and give them a wide berth.
The red loop has some great flowy sections too, including ‘Cool Runnings’ and ‘Magic Mushroom’, with small sections of boardwalk in places and some optional technical challenges to add variety, including on the singletrack climbs. All of this adds up to make the 7stanes centre a must-visit spot for fans of flow, and if all the popping and pumping starts to grow a bit tiresome, there’s also plenty of great natural riding to be found nearby, to mix things up a bit.