Gisburn Forest – Forest of Bowland
Trail Grades at this centre:
Blue - Moderate Red - Difficult Orange Bike Park |
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Gisburn Forest – Forest of Bowland Summary
Gisburn Forest is located in the east of the Forest of Bowland and provides rides and skills areas for all abilities – from Easy Blue rides to Extreme Orange in the skills area and downhill routes.
Trail Centre Details
Gisburn Forest in North East Lancashire is run by Forestry England and boasts a number of routes and skills areas suited to different abilities. This includes a blue easy route, a longer red route and a couple of downhill sections. The Red route is called “The 8” and incluides anumber of optional black graded sections; Whelp Stone Crag, Bigfoot Slab and the gnarly Hully Gully.
There are 4 trails and a skills area- ranging from Orange Extreme to easy blue routes.
- Bottoms Beck Trail – Blue
- The 8 – Red
- Hope Line
- Leap of Faith
- Skills loop – near The Gisburn Forest Hub.
The Skills Loop at Gisburn allows you to try out a number of differently graded singletrack before heading out on the trails proper. This allows you to see if you’ve the skills to tackle the harder routes, or if you need to take on the blue! The Skills Loop is an ideal location to hone your MTB skills before committing to anything more serious.
You can also start the routes from The Hub, or from either the Cocklet Hill Car Park( SD745 550) or the School Lane Car Park (SD738 573) – with the same parking charges applicable.
Those looking for other activities will find that there’s a number of walks from Gisburn, horse riding, play areas and is even a Dark Sky Discovery centre if you fancy a bit of star gazing.
Red route, Gisburn Forest 
The Gisburn Red Bike Trail near Whelp Stone Crag, Rathmell for SD7558
This part of the trail is also a public footpath.
© Copyright Humphrey Bolton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Gisburn Forest is the preserve of the chain saw and the mountain biker.
There are several trails on offer that wind their way amongst the trees – of which the “Home Baked” is one; ranked difficult, although to me perhaps impossible seemed more appropriate.
© Copyright Chris Heaton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The Gisburn Red Bike Trail near Whelp Stone Crag, Rathmell for SD7558
This part of the trail is also a public footpath.
© Copyright Humphrey Bolton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Facilities:
The Gisburn Forest Hub provides a cafe, shop and bike hire.
Gisburn Forest Opening hours:
7 days a week from 10am – 4pm .
Note that the Hub is CASH ONLY!
Parking and Fees
Parking in any of the 3 car parks at Gisburn Forest costs £1.50 for one hour or £3 all day and £6.00 vehicle and trailer. Annual passes are also available. Note that tickets are valid across all three on day of purchase.
MTB Routes at Gisburn Forest – Forest of Bowland
Orange Bike Park Grade
Leap of Faith – Gisburn Forest
The Leap of Faith is one of the two downhill sections of trail ar Gisburn Forest along with the Hope …