Description
The Quantocks are in South West England and they run from the Bristol Channel to Taunton in Somerset. This is epic natural MTB terrain. There is a good selection of downhill and cross country trails. Check out the Triscombe descents.
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The Quantocks Trails Overview
- The Quantocks have over 100 km of MTB trails in total. As it is an area that is only 19km by 7km, it means it's well packed in.
- The Triscombe/Great Wood area in the North is a really popular area for riders as it has lots of hand-built trails.
- The terrain holds well in wet conditions (though do be prepared, as the grassier tracks and the bottoms of the Combes get muddy in the winter). The Quantocks are basically a long ridge with a descent of around 250 meters, so it is a lot of up and down. You get swooping hills, woodland, exposed heathlan,d as well as steep gnarly descents. So whether you're an XC or a hardened downhill rider, you can pull together a great route, whatever your preference.
- Nearby base: Taunton sits 10–15 minutes south of the Quantocks and is the main access town for visiting riders, with bike hire, accommodation, and train connections.
The Quantocks XC Trails
- The terrain here is hilly and so can be quite difficult. In terms of technical ability, it really has something for every ability level. Twisty singletrack is its signature as are the steep descents. Some of the more well-known are best are the Frog Combe descent, Somerton Combe and the Chimney over at Triscombe.
- Dead Women's Loop is renowned and is around an 8-mile circuit. It passes through Holford Combe from Deadwoman's Ditch, then up past Hodders Combe, Lady's Edge, Bicknoller Post, Crowcombe Park Gate, before finally back to Dead Woman's Ditch.
The Quantocks Downhill Trails
- Quantocks is not just about XC, there is good Downhill riding here too. Near Lydeard Hill Carpark, there is a 'Triscombe' downhill trail. Triscombe has some carved out tree-lined steep downhill tracks with some big jumps. There is also 'The Chimney leading down to 'Greatwood'. This track is fast, technical and runs through a gulley.
Groups
- A good local community Facebook Group known to work closely with the Forestry Commission is Triscombe Riders Collective.
Useful Sites and Route Guides
- A classic is the MBR Quantocks The Best of British Singletrack route, which is 27km long and can be found here.
- MBUK has a neat 19km route with GPX to download on Viewranger.
- MTBtrails.info has 8 routes with guides and GPX ranging from easy to hard. Find them here.
- MTB Foodie has a 32k route with descriptions here.
Share
- If you have ridden any of these mountain bike trails and tracks in the Quantocks, then please share your experiences with the community and leave a short review, post some pictures or a video.
📍 UK MTB Trail Index
