Wye Valley, Welsh Borders

Distance 24.2km (15 miles) Climbing 730m (2,395ft) Time 2hrs to 3hrs

Route summary A picturesque ride exploring the steep wooded hillsides on both the English and Welsh sides of the River Wye, with tough, technical, rocky trails aplenty.

Start/ inish Redbrook main car park (postcode NP25 4AL, grid ref 536/100)

1

Head south on the A466. As you leave the village, turn sharply left on Coach Road. Climb steeply, then turn right on the O a’s Dyke Path near the top. When the tarmac ends, continue straight on along this track, before keeping ahead at Wyegate Green (it’s signposted as a footpath, but it’s not). 2

The trail becomes a technical rocky descent down to a road, where you go right. Keep ahead until shortly after a car park on the right. As the road heads downhill, turn right on a hidden track into the trees. After a short descent to the main road, go left. Cross Bigsweir Bridge and bear left. Ride for 0.8km, then turn right on a track, signed to Bigsnap. 3

Follow this hard track up the hillside, ignoring a little bridleway on the left (unless you want a shorter, steeper climb on it). Remain on the forest track as it heads sharply left and then continues ahead, climbing up to a track crossing. Follow a forest track right, just after crossing a byway. Keep ahead/north on this until you meet a road. 4

Turn right on the tarmac, then keep ahead at the junction to a forest track. Go left, ignore the first right turn, then take the next one, on a bridleway heading downhill. Keep ahead on this to a road and go right, to the village of The Narth. As you enter, look for a track on the left that looks like a driveway. If you get to a road on the right, you’ve gone a little too far. 5

Enjoy a technical descent to the road and head left on it. Pass a house (which sells cakes), then go right on a road just after New Mills Farm and a red phone box. Continue uphill and, when the road bears left, keep ahead/right into the woods, past a green barrier. Look out for a bridleway on the left and join it, forking left further on, up to the edge of the woods. 6

Turn right, back on yourself, to head downhill, keeping left at a fork to join a track back down. When you pop out on the corner of a forest track, go ahead over this onto a narrow track heading steeply downhill. This is gentle to start with, then becomes technical and rocky. Go left on the track at the bottom, past a gate and around the hillside. 7

After a couple of hundred metres, when the track bears left, turn o right onto a singletrack downhill, then join a wide track at the bottom, keeping straight ahead along this (Wye Valley Walk) all the way until you reach The Boat Inn. Bear right just before the pub, over the bridge, back to Redbrook to finish.

LOCATION DETAILS

The beautiful Wye Valley is popular with outdoors types, the majority of whom make the most of the river down at the bottom, but the steep hillsides are home to some great riding. It’s also popular with horse riders and motorcyclists, which means some trails su er in the wet, and there’s an issue with o -piste riding and trail building, so please just stick to the legit trails.

GETTING THERE

The ride starts in Redbrook village, on the A466 down the Wye Valley, just south of Monmouth, to the west of the Forest of Dean.

MAPS & BOOKS

Ordnance Survey Landranger 162: Gloucester & Forest of Dean .

FACILITIES

The Boat Inn in Penallt, on the Welsh side of the river, is very good, with beer, food, live music and accommodation (01600 712615, www.theboat

penallt.co.uk), or if you want somewhere with more going on and closer to the Forest of Dean, Ye Old Ferrie Inn in Symonds Yat is great too (01600 890232, www.yeoldferrieinn.com). Redbrook Village Stores at the start is good for stocking up and, if someone hasn’t eaten all the cake in New Mills, that makes a nice (and is the only) refill option en-route. Pedalabikeaway at the Cannop Cycle Centre in the Forest of Dean (01594 729000, https://pedalabike

away.co.uk) is excellent and o ers bike hire.