Lake District: Whinlatter Forest Park (Missed Opportunity)

The Lake District is home to some of the best MTB riding to be had in the UK. We have had great fun on the man-made trails at Grizedale Forest so we approached Whinlatter Forest Park with great excitement, big mistake.

Whinlatter Forest is advertised as MTB friendly with many miles of trails and routes to be explored. We bought the map but couldn't find the MTB trails so spoke with the assistants. To paraphrase: there are no dedicated MTB trails in Whinlatter and bikes are restricted to the tarmac access and fire-roads! all other routes are for pedestrian walking only. This was a shock so we quizzed with reference to the leaflets etc we had come across at Tourist Informations outlets, the response was the same MTB's are restriced to the tarmac access and fire-roads. Having come so far we headed out onto the fire-roads, there were some tempting diversions but all had no-cycling signs and to be honest the gravel surface looked tame. We were not alone in our disappointment, we met a couple of groups with MTB's who were equally cheesed off.

In conclusion Whinlatter Forest is a non-starter for MTB riding, unlike other Lake District forests there are no rocky descents, rooty singletrack, raised boardwalk over swamps or banked corners. Save yourself the trouble and spend two days at Grizedale.