How to plan your Northern Ireland road trip

Mountain Bike Rider

Northern Ireland is the new trail centre honeypot. Here's how to string it all together.

Get yourself over to the booming trail centres of Northern Ireland before everyone else does.

Chances are you and your riding posse have pretty much ‘done’ Wales’ and Scotland’s trail centres. You fancy something new. Something a bit different. Something far away, but not too far.

Get your pen and pad ready

Stick Northern Ireland at the top of your list.

You might have seen the promo vids from MountainBikeNI doing the rounds on mbr.co.uk and elsewhere. They certainly seem to have had a lot of folk talking about them on our Facebook page.

rostrevor

Day 1 – Get to Rostrevor

Ferries leave Cairnryan, Dumfried & Galloway at 10:30am and take a couple of hours to arrive at Larne, County Antrim.

Drive to Rostrevor, County Down and ride the Rostrevor Mountain Bike Trails.

Rostrevor in a nutshell: incredible coastal views and exhilarating singletrack descents – including two gravity-focussed DH tracks.

Rostrevor mountain bike trails video

Rostrevor trail info

  • Red trail: 27km, takes about 3 hours
  • Black trail: 19km, 2 hours
  • Mega Mission: 1.8km DH track
  • On The Pulse: 1.3km DH track

Where to stay.

Where to eat.

castlewellan

Day 2 – Over to Castlewellan

From Rostrevor it’s a swift 18 mile drive to the Castlewellan Mountain BIke Trails.

Castlewellan in a nutshell: As well as delivering their fair share of adrenaline, these trails allow visitors to soak up unparalleled ‘mountainscape’ views of the Mountains of Mourne.

Castlewellan mountain bike trails video

Castlewellan trail info

  • Blue trail: 4.5km, allow 45 mins to get round
  • Red trail: 19km, 2 hours
  • There are two black runs: Dolly’s Chute and The Great Escarpe

Where to stay.

Where to eat.

davagh

Day 3 – Road trip to Davagh Forest

It’s a bit of drive to the Davagh Mountain Bike Trails – 70 miles approx – but nothing too arduous.

Davagh Forest in a nutshell: A very fun blue trail, a pump track, a short skills course but it’s the fast Red trail that’ll keep you on your toes.

Davagh Forest mountain bike trails video

Davagh Forest trail info

  • Red trail: 16km, 2 or 3 hours
  • Blue trail: 7.5km, 1 hour
  • Pump track and skills park

Where to stay.

Where to eat.

blessingbourne

Day 4 – Blessingbourne finale

Drive for about an hour over to Blessingbourne, County Tyrone.

Finish your trip where it all started for Northern Ireland’s trail centres. Blessingbourne was the first purpose-built mountain bike trail centre in Northern Ireland. It may be relatively modest but it’s plenty of fun and makes for an ideal last day of your trip.

Drive back to Larne (89 miles) and catch the 4:40pm ferry back to Cairnryan, Dumfries & Galloway.

Blessingbourne trail info

  • Red trail: 8km, allow 1 hour
  • Blue trail: 4km, 30 mins
  • Pump track

Mountain biking in Northern Ireland video

Head over to MountainBikeNI for even more info about how to get planning your Northern Ireland MTB road trip.