Cycle Routes and Bike Trails in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley

Whether you're a seasoned cyclist or just fancy a pootle through peaceful countryside, the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley offers something for everyone on two wheels.

With dedicated cycling centres, waymarked trails and scenic routes through woodlands, riversides and open country, this is a place made for adventure. Below you'll find every trail worth knowing about, with grades, distances and where to start.

Forest of Dean Cycle Trails

Start your ride from the Forest of Dean Cycle Centre at Cannop, the hub for mountain biking and trail riding, with bike hire, a café, a shop, skills areas and a pump track. Five waymarked trails run from here, from a two-kilometre green loop to red cross-country singletrack, alongside fourteen downhill lines.

Trails are graded like ski runs. Green is gentle and mostly flat, blue adds moderate climbs and descents with berms and rollers, and red means steep sections, drop-offs and technical features. They're listed easiest first below.

Before you go

Phone signal in the Forest can be patchy under the tree canopy, so download your map before you set off. Forest of Dean Mountain Biking's free FoD Pocket Trails app works offline and is worth having on your phone before you arrive.

Trails close for maintenance from time to time, so check the Forestry England trail status page before you leave home. The centre is free to enter, though parking charges apply.

The bike trails

Old Bob's Trail

Grade: Green. Distance: 2 km (1.2 miles). Starts from: Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Good for: first time off-road, adaptive cycles, tag-alongs.

Two kilometres of flowing green trail with three skills areas you can lap until it clicks. It opened in September 2024 and takes its name from the pumping engine that kept Cannop Colliery from flooding as far back as 1880. Suitable for two, three and four-wheeled cycles, and it bridges the Colliers Trail to the Verderers.

Hicksters Way Loop

Grade: Forest road. Distance: 8 km (5 miles). Starts from: Cycle Centre or Beechenhurst. Good for: families wanting a shorter ride.

Short on time, or riding with young legs? This covers the same country as the Colliers Trail in five miles instead of nine.

The Colliers Trail

Grade: Forest road. Distance: 14.5 km (9 miles). Starts from: Cycle Centre or Beechenhurst. Good for: families, all abilities.

A circular, family-friendly route on forest roads and former railway line, taking in Cannop Ponds, Beechenhurst and Mallards Pike with picnic stops along the way. Waymarked in yellow. Expect a firm surface that can be uneven or loose in places rather than a tarmac path.

Verderers Trail

Grade: Blue. Distance: 11.3 km (7 miles). Starts from: Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Good for: confident riders stepping up.

Forestry England describe this as one of the best blue-graded trails in the country, and it's the busiest ride at the centre. Seven miles of climbs, descents, berms and rollers through the woodland. The natural step up once the green trails start to feel easy.

Countdown and Launchpad

Grade: Blue downhill. Distance: short runs. Starts from: Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Good for: first downhill, adaptive gravity riders.

Fast and flowing with rollers and berms, and the gentlest way into the downhill trails. Launchpad was the UK's first gravity trail built to be ridden without pedal power, so it's open to four-wheeled and adaptive cycles too.

Freeminers Trail

Grade: Red. Distance: 11.5 km (7.1 miles). Starts from: Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Good for: experienced off-road riders.

The red-graded cross-country loop. Natural-feeling singletrack with switchback climbs, rooty drops, boardwalks and tabletop jumps. There's a red skills area near the start if you want to test yourself before committing. The trail takes its name from the Forest's free miners. Read their story.

Adit Trail

Grade: Red. Distance: 4.5 km (2.8 miles). Starts from: Forest of Dean Cycle Centre. Good for: experienced off-road riders.

Hand built by the Dean Trail Volunteers, with a tight, technical descent of over 500 metres. Forestry England pitch it as the next challenge once you've mastered the Verderers, and you pick it up off the Freeminers trail at post 61.

Beyond these, fourteen graded downhill lines drop off the hillside at Cannop, from blue through to double black. There's an uplift service if you'd rather save your legs. See our downhill cycling trails page for the full list.

Beyond the Cycle Centre

Symonds Yat and Bracelands Trails 

Grade: Green and blue. Distance: short loops. Starts from: Bracelands or Symonds Yat Rock. Good for: families, shorter rides.

Easier loops with green and blue options, and the views over the Wye to go with them.

The Peregrine Path

Grade: Traffic-free. Distance: Monmouth to Goodrich via Symonds Yat East. Starts from: Monmouth. Good for: riverside riding, wildlife.

A riverside route with a traffic-free stretch near Symonds Yat. Look up: the peregrines it's named after nest on the cliffs above.

The Wye Valley Greenway

Grade: Traffic-free. Distance: 5 miles. Starts from: Chepstow. Good for: families, the tunnel.

An off-road path linking Chepstow and Tintern through spectacular scenery and a historic tunnel.

The Newent Loop

Grade: On road. Distance: 28 miles. Starts from: Newent. Good for: road riders, quiet lanes.

A countryside circular on quiet roads and lanes through the Forest of Dean countryside. Download the route.

Monmouthshire Trails

A trio of beautiful, off-road “Tread and Trot” trails perfect for walkers, cyclists and horse riders:

- Tintern’s Hidden Histories

- Whitestone, Whitebrook and the Wye

- Dingestow Discoveries

Herefordshire

For more cycling paths across Herefordshire, visit the Herefordshire cycling paths website here.

Who looks after the trails

The trails here are shaped by the Dean Trail Volunteers, who hand built the Adit Trail and run regular dig days alongside Forestry England, who maintain the network across the Forest. Spotted a problem out on the trails? Forestry England ask riders to report it to fodtrails@forestryengland.uk.

Plan Your Ride

Looking for guided tours or local bike hire? Head to our Cycling page for more information and bike hire providers.