The almost legendary Marin mountain bike Trail at Betwys-y-Coed, North Wales has ceased to be.
Don’t panic though, it’s not dead, it’s simply being renamed. It will now be called “Gwydir Mawr” with Gwydir being the name of the forest and Mawr meaning ‘big’. It’s smaller sibling will be called Gwydir Bach … Guess what Bach means?
The trail was originally sponsored by Marin way back in 2002 and was one of the UK’s very first trail centres, paving the way (literally!) for the modern trail centres like Cwm Carn, Brechfa, Afan that we’re all riding today.
Timed around the rename is the launch of the new “Dwsin Drwg” section, new signposts, trail maps and a bit of sprucing up.
According to the MTBRanger facebook profile Marin were “given the opportunity to renew, but after some discussions the opportunity is now open to others. The trail name would’ve changed anyway and be Gwydir Mawr ‘sponsored by’, ‘powered by’, or ‘supported by’ (add sponsors name here!)”.
They went on to add that “As an organisation Natural Resources Wales is facing large budget cuts over the next 3 years and so seeking alternative revenue streams may be more important than ever.” So, bike industry, if you want to help support a legendary trail, you know where to go.
More info on the Gwydir Forest mountain bike trails.
There are plenty of details on the Gwydir Forest trails on More Dirt’s excellent trail guide.
The Satnav postcode is LL26 0PN, with trails near Llanwrst in North Wales.
The Gwydir Mawr (Marin Trail) is 25km long with plenty of big hills and exposed, away-from-it-all sections. There is no cafe or bike shop, but it’s near to the town of Betws-y-Coed which has a bike shop called Beics Betws, accommodation and plenty of places to eat and drink.
