Swinley would be my local and I so love the ginger and cobbles, and the ease of parking at the weekend, empty trails, and the awesome coffee 😈
Kielder would be mine ..20 mins up the road ..nothing but respect for the amount of work that goes into maintaining the trails there with only a handful of volunteers ..and sometimes not even that.
I still do the occasional trail build but not on " official " weekend Sundays ..but midweek with Ian ( The Bike Place )& Russell ( F.C.)..
As mentioned earlier it's not uncommon to see not another soul..so if space & tranquillity is what you like it ticks all the boxes .
The riding is as good as any other trail centre ..but doesn't get the numbers as it is so remote and to be fair is by-passed for the Tweed Valley which is only another hour or so up the road..
90 mins away is Hamsterley or Whinlatter both of which are excellent ..the new section of trail ( K-line) at Hamsterley should see it voted as trail centre of year as linked into Transmission etc it makes it the longest continuous red descent in the country ..great fun !
