Cornwall doesn’t advertise its mountain biking. There’s no big-name trail centre, no uplift, not much signage. What there is instead is a couple of centuries of mining, and the tracks the industry left behind.
Poldice Valley is the best example of it, and it’s close enough to us that you can ride a morning there and still be back for lunch.
What it actually is
Poldice isn’t a trail centre. There’s no map board, no graded loop, no café at the car park. It’s a quarry valley on the Mineral Tramways network between Bissoe and Portreath, and over the years riders have built it into one of the better places to ride in the South West.
You’ll find dirt jump lines, freeride tracks and downhill runs. A lot of it carries jumps, gaps, kickers, doubles and drops, and plenty of it is honestly black grade. It rewards people who already know what they’re doing.
It’s free, and nobody is going to check your ability on the way in. That cuts both ways.
Getting there and parking
Park at the roadside just south of the valley. From there the paths run north and you can explore up around the old mines at Goon Gumpas.
From our gate in Bolingey it’s a short drive inland, under half an hour. If you’d rather not drive at all, you can ride out and link into the tramway network, though it makes for a long day.
If you’re not ready for the jumps
The Mineral Tramways network is the answer, and it’s on the same doorstep.
The Bissoe Trail runs around fourteen miles from Portreath to Devoran, largely traffic-free. It climbs steadily up to Wheal Busy and then drops away down to the water at Devoran, which is the good bit. Parts of the wider network are flat and gentle enough for a child learning to ride. Other sections are steep enough to be worth riding on their own.
Unity Woods at Scorrier sits along the same route. It’s a hillside wood with a few trails and an easy climb in, and in May it fills with bluebells, which is worth planning a ride around.
One thing to respect: much of this is public bridleway shared with walkers and horse riders. Stay on the paths waymarked with the engine house symbol, and give way. There have been complaints about riders at other Cornish sites and it only takes a few to lose access for everyone.
Making a weekend of it
If you want a full day with a proper trail centre, Cardinham Woods and Lanhydrock are around three quarters of an hour away toward Bodmin.
Cardinham has the Bodmin Beast, twelve kilometres across the slopes of the Cardinham Valley and built for experienced riders, alongside gentler blue trails that are hard packed and a little stony. Lanhydrock is flatter and much better for families, with a skills area and bike hire including children’s bikes. A short stretch of road links the two, and doing both is about twenty three kilometres with four hundred metres of climbing, roughly two hours’ riding.
Coming back
This is the part that catches people out. Cornish mining country is wet, and the spoil is the kind of grit that gets into everything.
We’re in the valley at Bolingey, fifteen minutes’ walk from Perranporth. Each shepherd hut has its own shower room, so you’re not queueing for a block or walking across a field in wet kit. There’s free parking, somewhere to put the bike overnight, and a fire pit outside with wood included, which is a better place to sit at the end of a ride than anywhere indoors.
The pub is ten minutes on foot.
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