Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Carsington water.?
  • neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    Any good for taking the little'uns for the day.? Any good for a family pootle around on the bikes.?

    Cheers.

    mrmuddybum
    Free Member

    There are a few steep climbs around Carsington, but I have seen plenty of families riding around – the trailers seem popular round there 🙂

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    How old are your kids?

    If you go all the way round its a lot hillier than people expect (I used to do laps of it as part of my training back-in-the-day!), so be prepared to push/walk them up some of them. They're not long but are short and steep.

    If you don't want to do the full 8mile or so round trip and only wanted a short ride, I'd park in the Sheepwash Car Park (which is free), and cycle to the vistors centre and then over the dam wall and back. You also miss out on the hills as well as they are on the other side of the Res.

    Sheepwash car park here…
    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=424866&y=352828&z=120&sv=424866,352828&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=808&ax=424866&ay=352828&lm=0

    Overall though its a great place for kids.

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    neilsonwheels
    Free Member

    The nipper is nearly 9. She'll do the eight miles if theres icecream at the end.

    Crell
    Free Member

    She'll be fine at 9 doing the full loop. It's only the first section after the Dam wall car park that has hills you can't avoid now. They've put in a low path as you approach Hopton, but go up the (steep) hill as it's the best bit (descent) of the whole ride. There's a good play area for kids as well at the main centre. Go in an anti-clockwise direction as well.

    If you park at Sheepwash there's a barrier across the road which is a pain if you put the bikes on the roof.

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    There's a nice pub near the end of the route, lovely.

    From memory its a piece of p.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    Not to bad but as said odd hill that might require a push! If you go into village of carsington and hopton pub is miners arms, always busy, other pub mentioned is knockerdown. Both do food an will be a darn sight tastier than at the visitor centre!

    Crell
    Free Member

    The Knockerdown is an absolutely awful pub. The Miners is much better, with reasonable food, beer and good service. Neither are busy at this time of year.

    The food at the visitor centre is usually pretty good – but it can get packed out. Again, not too much of a problem this time of year.

    Instead of going over the dam wall, you can turn right as you approach the wooden gate / fence at the start of the dam. Go across the road, then follow the track (nice fast downhill) that will take you down to Hognaston. The Red Lion there is a great pub. She might have to push back up the hill towards the dam wall carpark though but it's worth it as a detour for a really good pub.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    debatable crell!
    wife used to work at the visitor centre cafe and the food aint good, oh and we had one of the shops in the centre too so im pretty familiar with the area. oh and as for the miners its busy at weekends, i should know coz i lived there. oh and agreed red lion is quality

    Crell
    Free Member

    Wrightyson, you're evidently the most local of locals! So in deference…

    I'll rephrase my comment to "my experience with the food in the visitors centre has been pretty good (particularly the bacon butties);…as was the hog roast and bbq for "locals" when they opened the centre in 1992. However I can't claim to have eaten the same quantity of food as a former employee, nevertheless my experience has been pretty good".

    I can still confirm the Knockerdown is crap…in fact it's off the scale. I can't think of anywhere locally I'd be less likely to recommend – particularly on a summer's day.

    I can still confirm that the Miners is currently very quiet…the emphasis was / is on "currently" as that's when the OP was intending to ride. Summertime and boule nights are a totally different matter.

    If you're still around I'd love it if you could show me the local trails, though you don't quite sound as local as you once were 😉

    Anyway, hope the OP had a nice ride with the kids.

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    Crell, priced out of the area I'm afraid, lived at Hopton hall then moved down into Wirksworth. I used to cycle along the trail back in the day to longcliffe then cut directly across the pastures, and down into carsington on what seemed the most severe gradient ever back in the day, especially on my old falcon ha ha. I even worked at the knock but had heard it'd turned into a dirt hole of late. So where you hail from, brassington is my guess. You never know I might even know you 🙂

    TomB
    Full Member

    I'm in Carsington village for a long weekend with the inlaws soon. Anyone recommend 20-30 miles of mtb fun to escape the family, riding from the village?

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    @TomB – I spend a lot of time at Carsington with the family, but haven't explored that much from there so can't help in detail.

    I guess if you ride down to Middleton Top then down the High Peak Trail, there is a fair bit of stuff round Black Rocks/Cromford/Crich/Ambergate/Shining Woods – put a post up on here and I guess quite a few of the usual suspects who ride round there would be willing to help you or even guide you.

    Would also add I think the food at the Visitor Centre is adequate, and standrads just not quite what they were – awesome chips though in the main restaurant (stupid american skinny fries from the outdoor bit)

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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