Has anyone ridden Llandegla after the car park is shut? The website says you can’t.

Plus, the layby at the bottom of the access road says No Parking. Has anyone ever had any problems?

Has anyone ridden Llandegla after the car park is shut ?

Yes

We park in the layby closest to the gate.

Never had any problems.

Nope. I’ve done it regular. Park at the bottom, ride up, chuck bikes over the fence, off you go.

I’m sure that if you do yourself a mischief, you’re on your own. So what? We’re all grown ups.

*prepares to be told off*

There’s a bridleway running through the forest and onto the moors, if you were riding along it and got lost cos it was dark, well that would be terrible wouldn’t it

I have once, middle of last year, after we got the late-opening night wrong. Parked in the layby right at the bottom of the access road (wasn’t ‘No Parking’ at the time as I recall) & cycled up to the reservoir & picked up the ‘official’ trail.

There’s nothing preventing you accessing the trails, i.e. no locked gates to climb over. We also met a few local dog-walkers on our way up to the reservoir.

Technically it probably amounted to trespassing as it’s private land.

The website does state “Parking outside the centre in anticipation of a late evening ride is not permitted. Expansion of the trail network will be jeopardised if you fail to comply with centre opening hours.”

You could probably get away with it, but if the landowners catch on & think it’s a problem then it could cause issues for the future of the site.

EDIT: unless it’s all bluster for insurance reasons

The car park is in its summer time schedule now so its open until 21.00 so it may not be the problem you think it is…which also has the added bonus of allowing you to overcome your undoubted Moral-Dilemma about using the tracks without paying for it (as rental of the land, provision of facilities & track maintenance etc) are paid for out of the carpark fees.

Edit: the land is owned by UPM Tilhill who are reputedly a strict landowner and not averse to causing occasional access probs for OnePlanetAdventure

I don’t think its the landowners that have a problem with it but some local residents and how it relates to planning permission for One Planet Adventures to do there thing there (ie the nimby’s ain’t too happy about people riding their bikes in a forest)

What disco_stu said the planning permission has various caveats including one around access out of hours. They’re not saying no for fun.

Do it, but be self sufficent if it all goes pear shaped. It is good fun having your very own trail centre for the evening.

Or go on a Wednesday and have a buttie and brew after. The Black doesn’t seem all that busy in the dark and a helment light’s a good idea for the switchbacks.