My favourite Welsh off-road rides — Gravel heaven in Wales
Bike Touring Collection by Katherine Moore
7
Tours
41:09 h
299 mi
26,225 ft
Wales never fails, or so the hashtag goes. One thing’s for certain; always take your raincoat. This is a Collection of some of the most incredible rocky doubletrack trails, jaw-droppingly beautiful coastal views, mucky, twisty singletrack and woodland tracks that you can find in the Celtic country, all that I’ve been fortunate to enjoy myself.
It’s easy to see why Wales is a gravel rider’s paradise. Many national parks, areas of outstanding beauty and protected sites are a good sign of incredible landscapes home to diverse wildlife. When people typically think of wild places in the UK, they look north and to Scotland. No need; there’s plenty of wild, remote and untended beauty in the West too.
You’ll find a varied selection of routes in this Collection, all intended to be accessible with a gravel bike, although I’d personally recommend a minimum of 40 mm wide tyres. Don’t let this stop you though if you’d rather ride something with a bit more bounce or fatter tyres; you’d certainly be glad of it in some sections!
Choose between routes that stretch from 16.5 miles (26.5 km) to 60.4 miles (97.2 km), and are spread across Wales, from the rugged and isolated Cambrian Mountains to the gorgeous coastal Gower Peninsula, the Brecon Beacons National Park and the lesser-explored Clwydian mountain range. Be sure to check out the route in the stunning Elan Valley too for some of the most spectacular gravel riding of the lot! All of the routes are very hilly, so you’ll need a good level of fitness to tackle these climbs.
Most of these Tours are accessible by train, although do check in advance whether you’ll need a bike reservation when you buy your ticket. Your best bet for trying these routes are in the drier months, as river crossings can become dangerous and impassable in wetter weather, not to mention boggy trails being tougher to ride!
Many of these Tours contain parts of longer distance trails, find out more on these here;
Trans Cambrian Way: komoot.com/collection/899090/welsh-border-to-irish-sea-bikepacking-trans-cambrian-way
GBDURO's Welsh leg: komoot.com/collection/919709/great-britain-off-road-part-2-wales-gb-divide
The Triban Trail: komoot.com/collection/917385/north-east-wales-secret-mtb-paradise-thetriban-trail.
On The Map
Tours & Highlights
- Expert07:0749.9 mi7.0 mph4,900 ft4,900 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.
Referred to as the ‘desert of Wales’ due to the remote nature of the area, the Cambrian Mountains are a lesser-visited part of Mid Wales that certainly don’t get the recognition that they deserve. For the gravel rider, they are a true playground; endless gravel roads, forest tracks, moorland trails and…
- Expert08:2460.4 mi7.2 mph5,900 ft5,900 ftExpert bike ride. Very good fitness required. Some portions of the Tour may require you to push your bike.
If you’re looking for a truly sensational route, not far from civilisation, this one through the valleys of South Wales, linking the capital city and Cwmcarn trail centre, is a cracking choice. The work of Cardiff-based cycling and photography collective For The Hell Of It.cc, I rode this route on one…
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- Expert02:4916.5 mi5.9 mph2,375 ft2,375 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Some portions of the Tour may require you to push your bike.
Smaller and perhaps less rugged than the peaks of Snowdonia National Park, the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding Natural beauty often gets overlooked by visitors heading west into North Wales in search of mountains. Touching on the coastline down to the English border, this chain of purple heather-clad…
- Expert05:4744.1 mi7.6 mph3,250 ft3,250 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Some portions of the Tour may require you to push your bike.
A single image stays with me strongly after this ride a few years ago; the towering cliffs of Trefil Quarry. There are few entries to the Brecon Beacons that rival it: from the south a long gravel road leads to a gap in the imposing rock faces, giving way to magnificent views down to Pontsticill Reservoir…
- Expert04:1431.3 mi7.4 mph2,525 ft2,475 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.
When I rode part of this route as part of a GBDURO recce across Wales bikepacking trip in August 2018, I declared it as one of my top ten days on the bike, ever, and little has changed since. The trail alongside Nant Y Moch Reservoir has to be ridden to be believed, and really is like ‘little Scotland…
- Expert05:5247.4 mi8.1 mph3,050 ft3,050 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Some portions of the Tour may require you to push your bike.
If big cliff top views and moorland singletrack trails are your bag, add the Gower to your ride list. A peninsula on the South Wales coastline near Swansea, expect to find limestone cliffs, sandy beaches, rough moorland and quiet deciduous woodland, all within a stone’s throw of the city.
The Gower has…
- Expert06:5749.0 mi7.0 mph4,250 ft4,250 ftExpert gravel ride. Very good fitness required. Some portions of the Tour may be unpaved and difficult to ride.
Nestled in the central area of the Cambrian Mountains, the Elan Valley is an area made up of a series of man-made reservoirs, made by damming the rivers Claerwen and Elan, and the gorgeous moorland hillsides that surround them. A mecca for mountain-bikers and road cyclists alike, this picturesque area…
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Collection Stats
- Tours7
- Distance299 mi
- Duration41:09 h
- Elevation26,225 ft
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