Coed-y-Brenin
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Coed y Brenin (Welsh for King's Forest) is a forest in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales near Dolgellau at grid reference SH7127. It is popular for its mountain bike trails and hiking paths. It has several man-made mountain bike singletrack courses in a woodland setting, varying in length from 12 to 38 km (7 to 23 mi), and one dual slalom course.
The site is owned and operated by Natural Resources Wales, and covers an area of some 9,000 acres (36 km²) around the valleys of the rivers Mawddach, Eden, Gain and Wen. There is no charge for using the trails, but there is a charge for the car park at Coed y Brenin Visitor Centre. This costs £1 for 1 hour, £3 for 3 hours and £5 for all day parking. All of the proceeds go towards the maintenance and improvement of the forest trails.
The site was identified as a potential mountain bike race course in 1990, and the first races were held there in 1991. The initial course had to be chopped out of an impassable rock-strewn terrain.
Shortly afterwards a Mountain Biking hire shop, together with a visitor centre and café were opened at Maesgwm. Five waymarked trails were developed by Dafydd Davis who was employed by Forest Enterprise as a Forest Sports Development Adviser, grew Coed y Brenin into a major UK mountain biking centre. Davis received an MBE in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours list for 'services to forestry' relating to his work on this resort.
A new £1.6 million visitor centre opened in the summer of 2006.[1] Since the opening of the centre, the trail offering has grown to <ref>8 mountain biking trails, 8 walking trails and 5 running trails. These trails are way marked. Maps are also sold at Coed y Brenin visitor centre and can be found online at www.mbwales.com
Mountain bike trails
In the late 1980s, Mark Willmore first had talks with the Forestry Commission about bringing mountain biking onto forestry commission land. Willmore ran the first trail centre at Coed-y-Brenin. Davis took up the baton the following season and has had an influential role in making the centre what it is today. Willmore and his then French business partner, Sophie Rebore that brought the French MBK brand of MTB to Wales after seeing the potential of this then fledgling sport in the French ski resorts.
| Trail Name | Grade | Waymarking | Length | Time needed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afon | novice (green) | river | 8 mi | 13 km | 1.3 hours |
| Minotaur (Loop 1) | intermediate (blue) | minotaur | 1.9 mi | 3 km | 20 - 40 min |
| Minotaur (Loop 2) | intermediate (blue) | minotaur | 3.1 mi | 5 km | 0.5 - 1 hour |
| Minotaur (Loop 3) | intermediate (blue) | minotaur | 5.6 mi | 9 km | 1 - 2 hours |
| Temtiwr | difficult (red) | apple | 5 mi | 9 km | 1 hours |
| Cyflym Coch | difficult (red) | red fox | 6.8 mi | 11 km | 1.5 – 3 hours |
| Dragon's Back | difficult (red) | dragon's back | 19 mi | 31 km | 4 hours |
| Tarw | severe (black) | bull | 12 mi | 20 km | 2 hours |
| MBR | severe (black) | MBR logo | 11 mi | 18 km | 2 hours |
| The Beast | severe (black) | beast | 24 mi | 38 km | 4.5 hours |