Illegal Mountainbiking

timmyjimmy

Does anybody have any experience with mountainbiking being banned, more specifically from Coiltte woods?
A few of us having been mountainbiking outside Kinsale in a Coillte woods for a few months but one of the guys went there recently to find a sign stating that the woods are closed due to illegal activity and mountainbiking. On the few occasions I have been down in the woods, everyone seemed to coexist there without and any issue. I can't argue that being the case all the time. Probably the uninitiated feared for their lives due to badass mountainbikers..
It is due to open again sometime in the future but I fear mountainbiking will be banned. Has anyone here ever worked with locals and Coiltte on making the space to be used by everyone?

iwillhtfu

Technically no one is allowed on Coillte lands without a permit.

I would say the illegal activity is aimed at moto cross bikes. Do ye cross any fences to get to your trails. We had a few issues in our club with commonage farmers as fences were being damaged by someone possibly hikers/motox/mtb hard to say who but they were cutting the fences. Either way they were losing livestock and part of their lease is to maintain a fence at all times.

It could possibly be they're felling in the area and as such have closed the entrance but I've never seen such a sign. Does it look anyway official? I wouldn't put it passed walkers or a private land owner making a sign up.

timmyjimmy

I would say it's official by Coillte. As far as i'm aware, no motocross goes on in the wood. I reckon some of the illegal activity is opportunists taking wood that had fallen from storm Ophelia. Saying that, some mtb paths were cleared using chainsaws for trees that had fallen. No doubt, illegal. but I can't see any major problem with actually helping out Coillte removing fallen trees.
There are other woods in Cork where people mountain bike that I use from time to time. I just hope they don't follow suit and ban mtbrs.

The only thing for it this morning is to head out on the road bike! I'm probably gonna piss off some people on that too

PS, no fences were cross or gates open. There is direct access from where we park our cars.

smacl

Most of the Coilte woods I've been to have a standard sign of things you're not allowed do which includes mountain biking. Given I ride a CX bike, I've always ignored them :P

Awful shame really, as we could have a really wonderful and extensive connected off road cycle-way if Coilte could be coerced into a bit of cooperation.

iwillhtfu

timmyjimmy wrote: »

I would say it's official by Coillte. As far as i'm aware, no motocross goes on in the wood. I reckon some of the illegal activity is opportunists taking wood that had fallen from storm Ophelia. Saying that, some mtb paths were cleared using chainsaws for trees that had fallen. No doubt, illegal. but I can't see any major problem with actually helping out Coillte removing fallen trees.
There are other woods in Cork where people mountain bike that I use from time to time. I just hope they don't follow suit and ban mtbrs.

The only thing for it this morning is to head out on the road bike! I'm probably gonna piss off some people on that too

PS, no fences were cross or gates open. There is direct access from where we park our cars.

I'd be inclined to carry on regardless if there's no felling taking place. Park your cars away from the signs and personally I find it very hard to read them without my glasses which I left at home

We predominantly use coillte trails and commonage and very few issues. I'd say they're more concerned with fly tipping and moto x bikes.

Wanderer78

Hope this doesn't spread around the country, a lot of work has gone into making trails

iwillhtfu

smacl wrote: »

Awful shame really, as we could have a really wonderful and extensive connected off road cycle-way if Coilte could be coerced into a bit of cooperation.

It is indeed but as was seen recently with that gee bag up on the spink taking a tumble on the rotten sleeper. Few will ruin it for the many but thankfully a judge with common sense had the final say.

_Brian

timmyjimmy wrote: »

I would say it's official by Coillte. As far as i'm aware, no motocross goes on in the wood. I reckon some of the illegal activity is opportunists taking wood that had fallen from storm Ophelia. Saying that, some mtb paths were cleared using chainsaws for trees that had fallen. No doubt, illegal. but I can't see any major problem with actually helping out Coillte removing fallen trees.
There are other woods in Cork where people mountain bike that I use from time to time. I just hope they don't follow suit and ban mtbrs.

The only thing for it this morning is to head out on the road bike! I'm probably gonna piss off some people on that too

PS, no fences were cross or gates open. There is direct access from where we park our cars.

Coillte have a spasam when people do work on their lands, it’s an insurance fear, if they get a sniff of ye using chainsaws it will really get their back up and I’d be thinking this is what has caused the problem.
One task we do at work is maintain a public walk through coillte forests and it’s a total nightmare trying to appease them.

ThisRegard

Hasn't mountain biking always been banned on Coilte land other than on designated trails? There's plenty of unofficial trails throughout their land and a blind eye may often be turned. However a while ago I was on such a trail and it was purposely disrupted by Coilte.

Wanderer78

ThisRegard wrote: »

Hasn't mountain biking always been banned on Coilte land other than on designated trails? There's plenty of unofficial trails throughout their land and a blind eye may often be turned. However a while ago I was on such a trail and it was purposely disrupted by Coilte.

you re probably right, our trails have been purposely disrupted by coilte in the past, and understandably so, but theres largely been multiple blind eyes turned. i would agree with above comments, bringing chainsaws into illegal trail building is idiocy.

iwillhtfu

OP how big/isolated is the forest you have trails in? Did a member have a run in with any walkers, they can be quick to lodge a complaint.

We've never had an issue with coilte directly and they've never disrupted our trails other than during logging one may be destroyed.

A blind eye will always be turned as it's near impossible to police. They can't seem to stop the moto x lads

timmyjimmy

Here's a link to the trails on trailforks:

https://www.trailforks.com/photo/12416483/

I've been there a handful of times. Each time we bumped into a few other chaps. In all, I know of about 8 people who mtb on the trails but i'm sure there's far more than that.
We met one chap who did an awful lot of work on trails. Actually every time we've been down, we met this guy. Absolute gent of a man. I really can't see anyone having a run in with him. Actually, we never had a run in with anyone when we were down there. We met people of all ages who loved the idea that we were using trails for mtb.
We will probably go back back and have some fun. I just hope there's no grief.

Tenzor07

timmyjimmy wrote: »

Does anybody have any experience with mountainbiking being banned, more specifically from Coiltte woods?
A few of us having been mountainbiking outside Kinsale in a Coillte woods.

No idea about Kinsale..or if there's a local MTB club that has any experience with using these woods? Maybe contact the forestry manager and see what the story with it is?
Also, some of the land there could be privately owned and farmers will be the first to erect multiple signs if they see any evidence of people on their lands...

However as others have said, MTB is generally not permitted on Coillte land apart from designated trails..

C3PO

To the best of my knowledge, mountain biking is not allowed on any Coillte land with the exception of the designated mtb trails ... it has always been so! Having said that, they will often turn a blind eye as long as people are not taking the p*ss or putting other users at risk!

boomdocker

as the previous poster and others have said...most 'third-party' activities are not allowed in Coillte forests unless under permit or in designated areas.

This is governed by a bye-law introduced in 2009 - see here; http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/si/151/made/en/print

In my experience, if you want to build trails etc...the best course is to develop a good relationship with the local manager, and don;t interfere with commercial forest operations
And accept that the trails you build, will in time be destroyed - that's just a result of Coillte being a commercial timber harvesting enterprise

Macy0161

Just to say again, Coillte say no moutain biking except for designated areas. I seem to be coming across more motorcross bikes recently though - I think they do a lot of the "damage" that is subsequently put down to mountain bikes, both to trails and fences. But around me, bans don't seem to be enforced (along with the similar signs for horse riding, which are also ignored).