[Closed] West of Ireland: good for mountain biking?

I went to the south west and had an awesome time. So good in fact that when I got back I had a massive craic in my frame

The west is the one area of Ireland MTB I'm not too familiar with.

Derroura (sp) has a load of trails.
Cooloney too.
I don't know of a MTB club in the neck of the woods but there must be with those trails.

I suspect going onto Strava will yield the best results, as there are few rights of way or footpaths the trails are all word of mouth (like the east and south 20 years ago).

As already advised Derroura (Galway) & Cooloney (Sligo) are the 2 Trail centers, loads of gravel routes rather than proper MTB, greenway from Westport to Achill worth a spin

Might be worth a request on the MTB forum of boards.ie

There's a club ride on Wednesdays at Coolaney, according to a couple of people I met there a few weeks back. They were also talking about Union Wood in Sligo being a great place to ride, but naff in the wet.

More trails currently being built at Coolaney which are due to open in the next couple of months apparently too

Thanks all.

I’ll see if I can tap into the boards.ie forum. Cheers

Try Trailbadger not sure how often it is updated

Boards might take a couple of days fir an answer.

I have family in Sligo but stopped taking my MTB years back as land access was pretty bad - things could well have changed in terms of trail centres etc, the wild Atlantic way has been a huge success. But in terms of taking to the hills natural XC stuff there isn't much in the way of rights of way so local knowledge will be key.

Done some great road rides there - beefy climb up to the radio mast on Truskmore is a good one, but there's prob 100s of great routes, it's such a beautiful part of the world. Just need the weather!

@andyha - trailbadger is a great resource. Thanks.

Here's a link to some of the things the lads behind it got up to Tango and Cash @bonni

Not done any but seeing as there are no rights of way and no right to roam I can't really see what there can be apart from trail centres/bashing about the woods.

Strava would appear to back this up.

Not done any but seeing as there are no rights of way and no right to roam I can’t really see what there can be apart from trail centres/bashing about the woods.

That was my understanding. We did some work with a national park in the North West a few years back and there were huge issues over land access even for walkers. They were steadily buying chunks of land to try and put a few long distance paths in. What they had was great, and totally stunning, but it really wasn't very accessible.

Derroura (sp) has a load of trails.

Really? I found it pretty limited when visiting the in-laws. There are other options that side of the Corrib around Moycullen and Rosscahill and at the top of the lake there's a mix of linked trails and tracks between Cong and Clonbur it's a bit flat though. Other than that, land access can be an issue, but I'm sure that one or two mountains could be done. I've got my eye on Maumtrasna if we end up there next summer. The big pointy one covered in tourists and pilgrims next to Westport (Croagh Patrick)is rideable, but probably wouldn't be a sensible option!

I’ve rode Croagh Patrick as mentioned above.

It’s very very technical and I’d say you need a decent level of ability to get down in one piece.

It’s a push up job and ride down, long travel bike highly recommended and don’t do it solo as it’s pretty risky.

Having hiked Croagh Patrick several times I can't imagine riding down the top cone section, trail to the saddle is probably ok though.

@kormoran 😂