Had a possibility of a job in Bournemouth, which tempted us to consider making a move away from the London area.

Are there many trails accessible down there? Any advice welcome?

Purbeck is the obvious. Accessed via the Sandbanks ferry from Poole.

Loads of other stuff on the Heaths around Bournemouth / Poole and Wareham Forest is good too.

Lot’s of good Bridleways in North Dorset – bit gloopy in the Winter great in the Summer.

Dorset Rough Riders is the local club. Charlie the Bikemonger (Purbeck Bike shop and occasional frequenter on here) are good sources of info.

Ta. I’ll do some googling on them.

Slightly further away there’s some good stuff around the village of Symondsbury, near Bridport. There’s a skills area – payable – but also a great little 8km XC loop around the village, with a cracking descent at the end.

I was staying for a week in the village (lovely pub, great beer) and by far the best riding I found that week was on the doorstep. Elsewhere it was very frustrating at times – lots of BWs that were overgrown or had just disappeared.

Chris,
Do you have any more details on that? What does the skills area involve? Is it linked to a forestry commission car park or something?

St Catherine’s hill was decent , but that was many moons ago. Not sure what it’s like now. Last time I went there I smashed my collarbone in a me/tree interface

Edit: decent as in I was 15 then so it might be tame to ‘grown ups’

Puddletown?

as Hob Nob said, puddletown is good, especially this time of year compared to other trails as it’s sandy so tends to drain well. You’re not far from a few trails near Blandford either.

Rides from here over ferry

Loads of stuff to ride. Dorset Rough Riders have been going for 25 years, have 300 members and do up to six rides a week. We had 62 riders turn up one Wednesday night back in the summer.

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See you out there.

Dave

DRR Chairman

If then job is at jp you may as well be in London still…

Moores valley has a tame but fun loop to blast round. There is some North shore closeby too that was built by the FC.

Do you have any more details on that? What does the skills area involve? Is it linked to a forestry commission car park or something?

Here’s the link

Nothing to do with FC, just a private enterprise making good use of their land. Well worth a visit if in the area, if only to encourage similar developments