Slieve Bloom trail centre

mobfromcork

Morning folks, was thinking of heading for the Slieve Blooms over the weekend. For those that have done the Kinnity side trails, are they suitable for an enthusiastic 8 year old? She's done the green loop in the Ballyhouras and the bottom 3-4 loops in Ballinastoe a few times without difficulty and has a reasonably decent bike.

drunkmonkey

Is there a map of that trail, does it loop back to the castle if you start from there.

ravydavygravy

Mobfromcork - yeah, no issues. Mine just moaned on the climb up, but it's not a bad climb - 300m over 5km on the blue loop

Drunkmonkey - yes, you can loop back to the castle. There's a map on the Coillte site.

GiantRosa

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Is there a map of that trail, does it loop back to the castle if you start from there.

There's a Garmin link on the thread, some pages back.

mobfromcork

Really enjoyed the loop from Kinnity today. Left homeway too late - didn't arrive until 3pm so a bit under pressure with my 8 year old who needed a bit of encouragement to peddle up. I wasn't sure of of how long it would actually take so had to push her a bit on the ascent. She had an absolute ball on the way down though. She had a bad enough spill the last time she was out so was a bit hesitant at the start but was really getting into it on the second long descent. I was taking it very handy tipping along with her but the few times I ramped it up a bit I found myself picking up a decent bit of speed. I'm not as experienced as many who are posting here but I found the flow here better than the other similar trails I've done for the most part.

drunkmonkey

Did you do the blue or red trail, is it as simple as cycling off to the right from the castle car park and follow what ever colour arrows you want. I don't have a Garmin or anything.

iwillhtfu

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Did you do the blue or red trail, is it as simple as cycling off to the right from the castle car park and follow what ever colour arrows you want. I don't have a Garmin or anything.

There's only a blue trail from kinnity castle and it's sign posted the whole loop, near impossible to get lost.

The red trails are on the mountrath side it would be a fair cycle between them I think.

drunkmonkey

Ah right it was whatever way I looked at the map I thought the red started in kinnity. I might give it a blast during the week.

mobfromcork

I did the blue one. I think the red one starts from a different spot on the Laois side. We parked outside the school in the village and cycled up to the GAA club, around to the back of the castle and up. The signs are easy enough to follow but some posts only have the walking symbols on them even though you are on the right trail. It took around 80-90 minutes including walking up a few of the longer drags.

mobfromcork

You could do it a lot quicker than that without a smallie in tow though

iwillhtfu

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Ah right it was whatever way I looked at the map I thought the red started in kinnity. I might give it a blast during the week.

Also I don't think they want you parking at the castle. I parked at what looked like an overflow carpark at he castle when I was there but it wasn't officially open.

drunkmonkey

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Also I don't think they want you parking at the castle. I parked at what looked like an overflow carpark at he castle when I was there but it wasn't officially open.

I got married there and we go the odd time for lunch, food is pretty tasty. I doubt they care too much about parking down there might appreciate dropping into the dungeon for a coffee afterwards though. The staff have always been sound.
There's never anything happening down that end of the castle carpark. I think the council have slowed down the distillery opening but that's down near the stables.

Biopace

Rode over to the Laois side trails (Baunreagh) from Kinnitty yesterday, to be honest, probably not worth the trip right now, only two very handy trails are open, not technically difficult at all (most certainly not red!), but good fun to horse along, nice and flowey again, well made and designed, a few unxepected ups but that seems to be the way for most of the Slieve Bloom trails.

Theres a huge amount of work going on over that side though so no doubt in a few months it'll be worth a return trip.

covey123

So I tried out the Kinnity trails yesterday for the first time.Have to say what is there at the moment is really well built,very good flow and perfect berms.
The downside is there isn't enough trials yet(one at least still under construction) in my opinion to make it worth a trip unless you are living relatively close, pretty much one long climb from the village before getting to the top and onto the trails,but the option is there to make smaller loops out of each trial section once there.
The place would be perfect for an uplift service, here's hoping that happens!

xxyyzz

I finally got to ride the Kinnitty trails today and they are very tame. The descents are very well built with loads of flow, rollers, tabletops and berms etc which is a credit to the trailbuilders given the restrictions Coillte imposed on them but they are crying out for a bit of tech. Still, they are ideal for winter training and there's some nice off-piste stuff if you know where to look.

Claude Burgundy

xxyyzz wrote: »

I finally got to ride the Kinnitty trails today and they are very tame. The descents are very well built with loads of flow, rollers, tabletops and berms etc which is a credit to the trailbuilders given the restrictions Coillte imposed on them but they are crying out for a bit of tech. Still, they are ideal for winter training and there's some nice off-piste stuff if you know where to look.

I had hoped to get over this week but the weather didn't help.

iwillhtfu

Claude Burgundy wrote: »

I had hoped to get over this week but the weather didn't help.

It would probably help with the grip, it's very dry up there at the minute and gravel is acting like marbles on the hard pack

Claude Burgundy

iwillhtfu wrote: »

It would probably help with the grip, it's very dry up there at the minute and gravel is acting like marbles on the hard pack

Its the lightning i was worried about

Biopace

xxyyzz wrote: »

I finally got to ride the Kinnitty trails today and they are very tame. The descents are very well built with loads of flow, rollers, tabletops and berms etc which is a credit to the trailbuilders given the restrictions Coillte imposed on them but they are crying out for a bit of tech. Still, they are ideal for winter training and there's some nice off-piste stuff if you know where to look.

I find the made trails are much better fun on the hardtail, the full suss makes them all a bit easy peasy. Its gonna be a good spot when its all done and joined up, plus the off-piste stuff is good crack. Must head up again soon, haven't had a chance to try them out in the dry.

xxyyzz

Biopace wrote: »

I find the made trails are much better fun on the hardtail, the full suss makes them all a bit easy peasy. Its gonna be a good spot when its all done and joined up, plus the off-piste stuff is good crack. Must head up again soon, haven't had a chance to try them out in the dry.

When the Kinnitty side comes out onto the road, there is trail work happening on the other side of the road, is that the Bunreagh loop?

I found some of the signage confusing on the first climb also, you come to a fork on the road with a sign saying long loop and short loop but there are no arrows saying which road is which. I went left which I think was correct but it's not obvious.

I'm lucky, my in-laws live equidistant from Kinnitty and Kylebrack near Loughrea so I have the options of a pedally spin in Kinnitty if it's wet or a good techy spin in Kylebrack if it's dry.

Biopace

xxyyzz wrote: »

When the Kinnitty side comes out onto the road, there is trail work happening on the other side of the road, is that the Bunreagh loop?

I found some of the signage confusing on the first climb also, you come to a fork on the road with a sign saying long loop and short loop but there are no arrows saying which road is which. I went left which I think was correct but it's not obvious.

I'm lucky, my in-laws live equidistant from Kinnitty and Kylebrack near Loughrea so I have the options of a pedally spin in Kinnitty if it's wet or a good techy spin in Kylebrack if it's dry.

No the Bunreagh loops are way over (if you ride up the tarmac road about 8k you'll eventually find them, not worth the effort at the moment IMO), but if you go into the forest that is accoss the road, you will see other trails that they are/have built, I'll see if I can get a gpx for you.

On the signage, agreed, on the way up to the trails there is a short cut up to the right as you come out of the trees that most of the locals take, cuts out alot of that faf on the fireroads.

Haven't been to Kylebrack since they felled alot of it, are the trails still there? they were savage.

xxyyzz

Biopace wrote: »

Haven't been to Kylebrack since they felled alot of it, are the trails still there? they were savage.

Yeah, lots of good stuff there.

Johnny Jukebox

Rode these trails for the first time at the weekend. Great fun in an awesome location on a brilliant sunny day.

I hope they keep building and promoting this location, it has endless potential.

running_away

Anyone been here recently? Is there much more opened up in the last month or so? Last time I was there I think they were working on a red on the Kinnity side.. anyone know if this is open?

bogmanfan

running_away wrote: »

Anyone been here recently? Is there much more opened up in the last month or so? Last time I was there I think they were working on a red on the Kinnity side.. anyone know if this is open?

There's around 22km open on the Kinnity side now. Half blue, half red. Although I didn't see any difference in the trails to be honest. Very fun loop with some great scenery.

running_away

yeah I didn't notice much difference beween blue on Kinnity side and red on Baunreagh side but I like the flowy nature of them both, with just enough small jumps and berms to keep it interesting