CASTLEWELLAN

Just 30 minutes’ scenic drive from Rostrevor is the Castlewellan trail centre. This offers a blue trail and a red trail with two black options.

The blue is a gentle panoramic trail that offers stunning views of Castlewellan Lake, which the red splits off half way around. The fun really kicks in on the first red/black split and will carry on around the whole route. Makes sure you take in Dolly’s Chute and then enjoy the Moorish Return to the trail head.

Davagh Forest

The third National trail centre in Northern Ireland is Davagh Forest. This is roughly 60 miles from Rostrevor and Castlewellan but don’t let this put you off.

Davagh Forest may only be able to boast a 7.5km blue and a 18km red, but don’t be fooled into thinking this makes it boring. The Davagh Forest red is renowned for its fast and flowy nature and also features a number of orange graded technical slabs to test your bike handling skills. Our favourite section is Run Ragley Run, named after the hardcore hardtail brand.

Other things to do

Northern Ireland also has a handful of Regional trail centres including Blessingbourne and Castle Ward but, if you’ve a couple of hours to kill before your ferry back, we reckon the best thing to do is head to Barnett Demesne on the outskirts of Belfast to sample the only official jump park in Northern Ireland

There are six graded lines to nail and a couple of hours sessioning will be enough to find your flow.

Places to stay

Of course you’re going to need somewhere to rest your weary legs (and sup on a few cheeky bevvies) after a long day’s riding, but Northern Ireland has you covered with a smattering of mountain bike friendly accommodation in reach of all the National trail centres.

For Rostrevor we’d recommend either the Whisteldown B&B for a characterful sea front stay or East Coast adventure pods for a more lo-fi experience. Best of all both of these are offering discounts if you quote MountainBike30 when booking.

A full list of mountain bike friendly accommodation can be found here.

To make things even easier, MountainBikeNI.com is packed full of impartial advice on planning your mountain biking trip to Northern Ireland this year and includes useful information such as detailed trail guides, interactive mapping, event listings, photos and videos as well as local recommendations on where to eat, drink and stay near the trails.

Planning on extending your trip to Northern Ireland, check out Ireland.com for some ideas of other things to do and inspirational places to visit on the Emerald Isle.

For more information on this 30 hour return ferry offer, click here.