UKH

Hello - anyone from Hereford area who enjoys riding?

I'm am taking my elderly parents to the 100th birthday party of an even more elderly friend this weekend. The party I think is Hampton Bishop just SE of Hereford. While they go to the celebrations for a few hours, I said I would chuck my bike in the back of the car and go for ride in an area I don't know at all.

I've had a poke around on Komoot, Strava and so on for inspiration but didn't find much. I could potentially bring my road bike, my gravel bike or my mountain bike, depending on what looks good. The provisional plan so far, after looking at OS mapping for the area is to bring my gravel bike. I've mapped out a 25 km loop using a lot of bridleways and some lanes, going further SE from Hampton Bishop. I can see there some hills (Backbury Hill, via the wonderfully named Cockshoot) and woods that seem to be National Trust (Haugh Woods) - plenty of bridleway, then coming back NW there is the Wye Valley Walk which is bridleway for bit I'd use. But I don't really know if it would be hard packed fire roads and perfect on the gravel bike, or rooty and rutted singletrack where you'd want a mountain bike?

Alternatively would a couple hours cruising around on lanes on my road bike be a better use of my time? Or is there even some 'proper' mountain biking somewhere nearby where it would be a shame to miss? 

As I said I think I'll only have two or three hours, so I don't have time to drive on to the Black Mountains or Forest of Dean this time. 

Cheers all!

If you want an easy and (relatively) flat road ride then the Golden Valley is really nice. Its a bit further south than HB but the ride between Pontrilas and Hay-on-Wye is lovely. Stop in Hay for a coffee and then ride back to Pontrilas. Done it a few times. 

https://goo.gl/maps/GY631xjCkyAB713c8

Roads are terrible in Herefordshire - stick to off-road!

While I'd agree surfaces aren't always great, there's lots of lovely road riding in Herefordshire.  I'm right on the northern border and don't know Hampton Bishop area well, but there are some good roads toward Bromyard.

Cannop Cycle Park is only a few miles away and offers excellent blue and red trails and downhills with a very friendly cafe scene.

All the lanes around Woolhope are beautiful, and close enough to Hampton Bishop to make good use of the few hours you have. A nice (albeit hilly) road bike route is to head E to Mordiford then N to Prior's Frome/Checkley/Woolhope-Cockshoot then S over Marcle Ridge (good views). Lots of quiet lanes you can choose to head over to Woolhope, where you can have a pint at either the Butcher's Arms or The Crown. Then climb N up to Broadmoor Common and Haugh Wood. Nice long, fast descent back down to Mordiford.

One of my climbing buddies lives near Hereford and rides his mountain bike quite a lot at Haugh woods. He is a highly competent and ballsy rider and he really rates the place, although it’s nothing like a trail centre such as Coed y Brenin. 
 

It has got some challenging riding and big jumps too if you’re in to that sort of thing. 
 

Reckon you would have fun there for a couple of hours, especially if you’ve got a full susser and like big airs. I have ridden there once, quite a few years ago, and wouldn’t rush back but perhaps that’s because I’m not as good a rider and only have a hardtail?! 

Lots of gravel in there as well.

I actually have ridden around there a little - I'm originally from West Worcestershire and my parents still live there so sometimes I take a bike down there and ride out west and noticed that you actually get in Herefordshire quite soon out towards Bromyard and Tenbury. Can't think of the roads there being much different from elsewhere in rural England!

Thanks for the suggestion, but checking, it's over a half hour drive from the party, so a bit too far for the time I have. I am getting a new mountain bike in the not too distant future though, so it's giving me ideas for a future trips!

I've found some youtube vids of people riding there - looks good, although my current mountain bike doesn't have any suspension beyond plus tyres, so I'm not much of small air rider, let alone big air! It does look good though.

I might stick with my gravel bike plan for this trip, as I can ride reasonably rough off road stuff on it, but it nips along on tarmac fine if the bridleways turn out to not very bike friendly,

Thanks Allan, that sounds really positive as that's the area I was looking at.

Hi,

From Hampton Bishop take road to Mordiford, then towards fownhope turn off over first road bridge on right towards home lacey.  then take left turn off to ballingham continue to carey then hoarwithy(pub). Left turn over river towards brockhampton, on to woolhope(pub) then take road to waugh woods back to mordiford back to hampton bishop.  

For everyone who gave advice - thank you very much! It was really hot on Saturday, but I still did a 22 km ride, almost all of it off road. It was perhaps on cusp of going into XC mtb territory in a few spots, and I only have 38 mm tyres on my gravel bike currently (I have 50 mm front and 42 mm back for off road bikepacking missions), but the the narrower all-rounders did fine with everything being so hard packed currently. Very pretty area with some interesting geology. Route and some attached pics here:  https://www.strava.com/activities/7440794313 

There is some more good limestone scenery in the north of the county - Wenlock Edge's limestone continues for a long distance over the High Vinnalls, Croft Ambrey, Shobdon and Wapley Hill into the very good hacking country in Radnorshire.  Even with the restrictions down there there is a lot to go at.

Yep - that's going back my way (well where I'm from originally anyway) so I've climbed on the Wenlock Edge crag -  Ippikins Rock - a number of times. I guess that's Shropshire - it doesn't seem there is much rock climbing in Herefordshire (I think Forest of Dean and Wye Valley climbing must all be Gloucestershire, or into Wales?) itself, so I was quite surprised to find I was riding up and down bridleways with exposed strata of limestones and the odd rocky step - you can just about see it in the photo below.