In just under a week I will be heading off for our family holiday to East Devon, to a small village near Sidmouth. Can anyone recommend some nice trails in the neighbourhood (preferably with a GPS track)? I can see possibilities if I travel to Dartmoor, but not so much close by.

My neck of the woods.

Haldon trail centre is half an hour away.

Woodbury has loads of natural trails and is closest for you.. should be able to Google a file. Love it there.

There are smaller bridleways here and there in and around Sidmouth but fair bit of road mapping them together. East Hill strips for example.

I’m Ottery based myself, so know the area well.
Some good trails on East Hill and off the end down towards Sidmouth, also some nice gravity type trails in Harpford woods between Sidmouth and Newton Poppleford. Your best bet for longer rides around here is Woodbury. Miles of stuff up there from wise open fire trails to techy singletrack.

Here’s a big loop around the area:
East Devon Loop

And here’s one with lots of the fun Woodbury trails:
Woodbury Trails

Woodbury as already said but take a route (or a local) or you will probably end up spending all day on sandy double track.

’tis true! Taken me a few years to build up my local knowledge. Happy to be a guide if I’m free. I’m normally home by 5pm, go early evenings and of course weekends. Email is in profile.

Many thanks for those tips, I’ll definitely be trying out Woodbury as well as Haldon.

@ajantom – thanks for the links to the routes on Strava, but as I’m not a Premium member I see I cannot download them. Could you please mail them to mail{at}andrewspink.nl? Thanks also for the offer to show me round; I’ll have to see what the rest of the family think go the idea of me taking off in the evening (I suspect not positive!).

If you can make it towards Haldon on a Wednesday, a bunch of us ride from the Ley Arms in Kenn at 6.30 or from the cycle path at the top of the old A38 at 7.00. Back to the Ley at 9.00 for a pint and cheesy chips.

DO you go out every week jruk? I’ll be down in South Devon for a while at the end of the month and would be keen to join you if you don’t mind? I’ve ridden Haldon before but only the trail centre stuff so it’d be good to have some local guidance!

The wed ride is every week. Normally between 5 and 10 riders depending on weather (can be more if it’s really nice!)
Tends to be a decent pace, but the group will stop regroup every so often. You’ll be taken on/down some great singletrack, and it’s riding lovely up there at the mo.

There’s a south west xc series xc race next Sunday at budleigh, just along the coast from Sidmouth. Apparently it’s a really good course, might be worth entering even if you aren’t a racing snake to get nicely marked out trails. Details on BC website. I’d like to be doing it but negotiations to that end are not going well!

@sambob- yep, there’s a ride every Wednesday. Nothing organised beyond meeting at the pub and going back to the pub 🙂

I’m in Exeter / Ottery on Monday afternoon, anyone around to ride with? I was thinking of Haldon off-piste stuff, but open to other options. Thanks, Rik.

I’m Ottery based , but annoyingly it’s forecast for heavy rain tomorrow afternoon. I’m also booked in for toddler wrangling duty 🙁 if you’re around later in the week drop me a line.

Cycle service in sidmouth do weekly MTB rides I think, and are prob worth a chat with

Many thanks for all your tips. Here is an account of where I went:
http://andrewspink.nl/mtb/en/mountainbike-blog/207-east-devon