Ride the UK's first trail centre — Coed y Brenin MTB trails

The original, and some say the best, Coed y Brenin was the first trail centre to be built in the UK, dating back to the early ‘90s. Based in Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, this is the largest trail centre in the UK, boasting no less than eight dedicated mountain biking trails, plus a great skills area, and hiking and running trails too.

Do you love rocky trails? Drop offs, rock gardens, technical climbs, flying around huge berms and snaking between the pines on skinny singletrack? If this appeals then you’re in luck at Coed y Brenin. There’s plenty more great features too, with incredible waterfalls to marvel at and even some huge natural rock slabs to challenge you.

Designed to welcome visitors from all over the world, the trail centre has everything you could need for a great day out. With excellent nearby accommodation options catering for mountain bikers, there’s no reason why you couldn’t make a weekend or holiday out of your trip either.

There’s a large café at the circular trail centre building, an extensive bike shop and workshop called Beics Brenin, which offers hire bikes and there’s also a dedicated running shop. You’ll find toilets, showers, and a bike wash at the visitor centre too.

Back to the trails, and boy there’s a lot of them! The blue MinorTaur trail is a fab, flowy option that’s great to help beginner riders grow confidence and skills, and the Yr Afon green family trail is a very pleasant short cycle from the hub. Beyond those, the red and black trails feature pretty technical sections and are well-known for being incredibly rocky, which makes Coed y Brenin a popular choice for experienced mountain biking enthusiasts.

The three red trails: Temtiwr (tempter), Cyflym Coch (red fox), and Dragon’s Back vary in length from a short 5.4 miles (8.7 km) to 19.3 miles (31.1 km), which you can anticipate to take between half an hour and five hours. There are frequent fire road options which can get you back to the trail centre if you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. It’s well worth downloading these routes offline before you go though, just in case phone signal is lacking in the valleys.

There are also three black trails to choose from; MBR (11.4 miles / 18.4 km), Tarw du (black bull) (12.6 miles / 20.2 km) and the mighty Beast (23.7 miles / 38.2 km). MBR and Beast both take in parts of the red trails, and the Tarw Du, the very first trail built at Coed y Brenin, heads across the main road into the woodland on the opposite side of the valley.

Besides the miles upon miles of built trails and rocky features at the trail centre, you’ll also find a brilliant skills area, named The Foundry. There are four parts here, and all feature progressive lines from blue to black, stepped drop-offs, berms and a freeride area.

Getting to the Coed y Brenin visitor centre is easiest by car, and there’s plenty of pay and display parking there, although overnight parking is not permitted. The trail centre is a 40 minute drive from Machynlleth train station. There’s plenty of accommodation nearby from hotels to guesthouses and bunkhouses that cater specifically for mountain bikers with secure bike storage, drying rooms and bike wash facilities.