I’m looking for advice on good area’s to stay in the FoD, quiet, easy access to the trails at Cannop and ideally with “family” off road riding and walking out of the door. So far I’ve found cottages at Berry Hill, Flaxley and Ruspidge. Anyone got any thoughts about these or other suggestions?
Thanks!

Forest Holidays cabins perhaps ?

Stayed here a few times, nicely appointed self-catering cabins. Not far from Cannop or from the river at Symonds Yat.

http://www.forestholidays.co.uk/locations/gloucestershire/forest-of-dean/

I stayed in Ruspidge last week as it happens, in an Airb&b.
Too small for a family but the village is really well placed for all that you mention.

We stayed on Tramway road, at the end of which is an amazing quarry to explore(carefully) and you can get down onto the forest paths that’ll take you to Mallards Pike and Cannop etc.
Cool place.

Berry Hill and Ruspidge will be riding from the front door. Flaxely will require a car trip or a stiff climb over Littledean Hill.

Forest Holidays cabins perhaps ?

wowsers. just looked at one of their 5 bed cabins. £6500 a week in high season!! £4500 for feb half term.

we stayed with the in-laws last week, bit run down and not that close to the woods but 1/4 of the price and massive.

Foxcote and Glen Cottages at Newcourt Farm – Foxcote at Newcourt Farm (ref W40058) in Marstow, near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire | WelcomeCottages

wowsers. just looked at one of their 5 bed cabins. £6500 a week in high season!! £4500 for feb half term.

‘Kinnel, nothing like that expensive when I’ve stayed there. Cheaper in the winter. We wouldn’t have had one that large, to be fair

Maybe this place is worth a look?
https://www.whitemead.co.uk

As above, Whitemead is a holiday place just out of Parkend and clear access to the woods and trails around that area.

Deanwood Holiday Cottages is up by pillowell and has good access to the woods and trails in that area, and central for others.

Loads of AirBnB’s around, pot luck really.

We go and stay for a few days every year, we’re only 30 minutes away in the car over the bridge, but my daughter doesn’t travel well, so we kind of make it a holiday almost from home, stayed in some nice enough places, last year it was Pathwell Farm, nice and clean, next to Bream, animals and so on for her, but was a car ride to do stuff, except me on the bike, that was easy offroad.

Reality is, you probably want to plan the week out, so much to do with the family that if you plan, you’ll have a clue about what you could get away with for a cottage, we tend to go to the Taurus centre for my girl doing craft stuff, Clearwell Caves, Puzzlewood, etc for the usual attractions, and the likes of Beechenhurst for biking and the go ape stuff.

cottages.com has a few up in the area, always worth a look, this year we’re up in Symonds Yat, although we may switch back to Pathwell, as my girl has a crush on the dogs (boxers!) that are on the farm!

Cherry ordard farm in Newland near coleford have an amazing converted milk shed to rent…

Whitemead is a pretty large site – from basic camping right up to apartments & it is pretty much packed full in the summer. We live about 5 minutes away & it brings a lot of people into the forest.

Having had a quick look, it’s also seriously expensive! However for a campsite, it’s pretty good from what I can see (in my limited experience!).

You are literally on the doorstep of the family trail loop from it, and there is good riding only 5 minutes from the entrance (albeit off piste, so may need some pointers).

Out of interest, what is the place in Berry Hill, original poster, or did you mean the log cabins?

This was the place I looked at in Berry Hill-

https://www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/Cotswolds-Gloucestershire-Berry-Hill/Home-View-970720.html?_hsearch=2203056223388289b31&_price=491&_display=1#duration=7&start=2022-04-01&changeover=5

Thanks for all the suggestions, we are booked into a great looking cottage in Ruspidge (thanks meatsupreme) Really looking forward to getting away, 1st riding holiday since covid started!

Take a banjo. They play a lot of them there!

A lot of truth in the banjo theory, one of the best luthiers in the country lives there.

Castlemaine cottages Parkend

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confused58
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Thanks for all the suggestions, we are booked into a great looking cottage in Ruspidge (thanks meatsupreme) Really looking forward to getting away, 1st riding holiday since covid started!

You’ve chosen the sin city side of FoD 😳😁

Ruspidge. Thats where you end up if you slide off the Monkey Tump.
Whitemead must be good for something. It’s rammed at the moment. No idea why, the pool is tiny, the food dire and the beer awful. Oh yeah and the woods are currently a quagmire due to timber extraction.

Yeah, not a fan of Whitemead or the likes, the good thing about FoD is there are so many who have holiday cottages there who live and work in the area, makes it easier to avoid the bigger holiday camps.

Ruspidge is a quite place, some walks and routes around it, Soudley Ponds is the best bet, Mallards is a disaster zone just now up at the bike tracks with the logging that’s been going on for ages now up there.

Sin City will be wasted on me, after a few days riding my only sin will be snoring on the sofa…..

Last time I checked Mallards trails were not too bad with only the very top bit logged. Has it taken a lot of damage argee? Might head up at the weekend and see what’s rideable

Lots of the stuff on the West side is gone.

Most of the blues to the lakes have been smashed, too sections being worked, the blues heading towards the entry to mallards are fine, as are the steep ones to the road, but they have had a hard winter and are rough due to the felling a couple of years ago, it’s not good to see the aftermath, but for a day out there’s still the likes of rattler, Blackpool, quarry, inbetweener and across the road.

They’re off to fell over in lydney woods now, even more annoying as that’s my favourite mess about area in FoD 😟

Lydney now? Seriously? Can’t they just finish one area before destroying another?

Forestry is certainly going for it atm. Keen management, diseases resulting from monoculture planting and high prices for lumber seem to have coincided to result in the smashing up of huge areas.

Lydney now? Seriously? Can’t they just finish one area before destroying another?

Yeah it’s super sad because from the looks of the map the forestry has provided, pretty much every single trail in lydney woods is going to get wrecked. When the work has finished (whenever that is) me and some other locals will be going out at lunchtimes to slowly but surely get as many trails back working as possible but I imagine it will take some time.

Yeah, and the specific statement on ‘unauthorised trails’ doesn’t bode well. Think a few of them will be ok, the ones closest to Pillowell might be ok, bar the bottom of a couple, same with the ones closest to Lydney, but they are doing a lot of ‘thinning’ around the whole bottom section, which hopefully means what it usually means, rather than getting the heavy machinery to smash through the sections.

When they did thinning at Dowies and Shutcastle last year most of the trails were affected too from heavy machinery so I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

WRT Mallards, I wouldn’t be surprised if the the whole lake side of the hill is a total no go zone once they are done. It’s being clearfelled due to disease & they have said it will be deerfenced when replanted to stop the animals transferring it around the forest. I get why they are doing it there, as they will end up clearfelling everything if it spreads.

Looks like Blackpool Brook side should be ok & there is a chunk of digging going on over the road if you know where to look.

I’m not too fussed about Lydney being thinned – it’s probably my least popular spot, so the trails will come back no doubt 🙂

Look on the bright side. These can all be done again. Dowies for example was worn out 10 years ago.More probably

Mallards is still getting worked at the top, looks like they may go round a bit more, i can’t see much of a recovery for that top section and the trails that went through, i think they are getting a bit brutal with trails though.

Inbetweener/rattler that start at the grassy opening at the top and then go into the woods with the roots and stumps at the start still run well, the Blackpool Brook ones (flydown, quarry, heckler, etc) have been hit by the storms and just worn out, but run ok in areas, the ones at the other side are the same, bit of TLC needed, but running as well as they do in winter.

As for Lydney, i just enjoy the circular way it’s set out, you have a mechanical, or need to store stuff, it’s in the car and always downhill to get there, plus there’s loads of variety up there, for my level anyway.