mountain biking trails

kingcharles82

anyone know if there are any good mountain biking trails in county clare, i presume there are a few in cratloe forest? just looking for a bit of information about any clare trails, looking for off road/forest trails

I do most of my mountain biking around East Clare so I'll try and give a run down of the trails out this way.

Cratloe Woods would be the best place to start. Nothing overly technical but a good challenge all the same. There are around 10 short enough XC trails but some might be hard to find. I'll PM you on a copy of the MTB trail map to make it a bit easier! Coillte are currently felling there so 3 of the trails at the top of the forest are gone and need to be rebuilt.

There are also some great trails around Lough Derg, most of them were used in the Lough Derg Challenge this year. On the Tipp side you have the Lough Derg Way which has a fun descent from the top of Tountinna and another ridiculously fast descent from the top of the Millenium Cross(Laghtea Hill.) The Lough Derg Way continues on over to Garykennedy with some nice XC stuff from the bottom of Laghtea Hill.
http://www.shannonregiontrails.ie/media/Media,10456,en.pdf

On the Clare side of Lough Derg there's some good stuff along the East Clare Way. The best thing to do is buy an OS map (no.58) and explore some of the East Clare Way trails between Limerick and Killaloe.

Out in west Clare there are some trails in the Burren which I haven't got around to trying yet:
http://www.esatclear.ie/~rdrohan/mtb/burren.htm

Not in Clare but only across the border on the Limerick side you have the Slieve Felim Way but it's mostly fireroad with only 2 singletrack descents. Make sure to do it from south to north for the best descents. It's a great full day spin doing it from south to north and taking the road back to Limerick.
http://www.shannonregiontrails.ie/media/Media,6176,en.pdf

The best stuff though would be in Ballycuggaran Woods in Killaloe. It's pretty technical though so be prepared The NPS loop there has been improved a good bit this year in preparation for the proposed race back in July. A lot of work was done on all of the upper singletrack so it's pretty much weather proof now and a new trail was built down to the carpark from the end of the 2010 NPS loop. Here's a helmet cam from last year of some of the loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqheuIwIHHQ

There's also the old XC descent which cuts off from the main loop. At the top of the nasty singletrack climb you turn left down the steep rooty section instead of going straight on. Our trails are strangely enough included on Coillte's map of the forest so should be easy to find using this:
http://www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=104
Killaloe is one of the more technical XC courses you'll find in the country so before heading there I'd advise being comfortable on the type of terrain in Cratloe first as it's a bit of a step up

Probably a bit too much information there but hopefully you'll find it useful.

kingcharles82

Thanks for the reply,it's appreciated!!I was in Ballyhoura last Saturday and it was great,just wanted something a bit closer to where I'm living (Ennis) so cratloe will be well worth a visit,is there any little jumps or boards anywhere along those trails?? Killaoe looks great in the video,must be a nice climb for that decent!!

Biopace

kingcharles82 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply,it's appreciated!!I was in Ballyhoura last Saturday and it was great,just wanted something a bit closer to where I'm living (Ennis) so cratloe will be well worth a visit,is there any little jumps or boards anywhere along those trails?? Killaoe looks great in the video,must be a nice climb for that decent!!

Unfortunately a large section of Cratloe has been felled recently, there's still fun to be had up there but some of the best singletrack has been deleted.

Daniel S

I'm in the exact postition as the OP. I made this thread a while back: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69202294

houseinthesun

Found some fairly good single track in Mooghaun woods near Dromoland in Newmarket-on-Fergus. Not extremely long or tough, but fairly technical and a few good short downhills. Good place to go for a burn.
It is part of the Mid Clare Way so give priority to pedestrians, we usually stop when we encounter any.
Looks like it would be good for Night Cycling - better than Cratloe IMHO:)

kingcharles82

never heard of mooghaun woods, how long is this trail

Squiball

Does anybody know if there are any trails out at Mount Callan or Reanagishagh?

Zuckerkorn

Deleted User wrote: »

I do most of my mountain biking around East Clare so I'll try and give a run down of the trails out this way.

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Quality post mate cheers. If you've any more to add that would be great, looking for a new activity and MTB seems ideal(outdoors, exercise) but information is pretty sparse out there in the world wide web regards MTB trails around Clare.

brian_m

Great info there Inibaz, ill keep this to hand next time I am down Clare direction.