Derroura - Mountain Bike trail

Completed this trail today in the rain. First time to ride this trail. The red trail is 15.5km long and took 1hr 40 minutes to complete. Very enjoyable trail but it is very rough in places. Constantly looking down to avoid rocks took a little away from the trail. Fantastic views from the top. Worth the effort just for the views. I wouldn't recommend this red trail for kids. Too rough. Portumna much better suited for kids.

Great ride , great views .-rocky -boggy-forest- boardwalks- and can be wild in bad weather. Downsides- car park is getting risky too use due too a lot of cars being broken into.

Firstly I have to say that I did this trail in wet weather and on a hardtail bike. Some climbs are quite steep, but it's rather physical challenge than technical. The upper part of the trail is very rocky, it's my first time I regret that I don't ride full suspension. In order to enjoy the views (that are spectacular) you will need to stop completely. Narrow bridges have rubber surface on them, so watch out in wet weather. You cannot, however, fall from a cliff or anything like that. A newbie can do this trail, it will just take longer time. This trail is totally worth doing once in the lifetime. I give it rating of 4 purely because of rocky part on the top of the hill. You have to crawl between stones standing on your pedals the whole time for quite a long distance.

It was my first time on this trail thismorning and I loved it. I thought the inclines were ok and descents were technical and fast in places also rocks, puddles and mud to contend with, but with good brakes you will be fine. On the last km or so it can be fast as there was a new trail added to bring back to camp, so just watch out cause it can get fast very quickly but a great thrill it has to be said!



I'm pretty much an amateur so myself I found this trial very exciting to ride and will be going back in 3-4 weeks time.

I was expecting a slog of a climb followed by some dangerous fast descents on Derroura after some of what I read, but in actual fact I was at the top of the climb before I knew it. Yes, it is technical in places but it's good fun and not the steep gradient I had expected. The downward side of the loop is great. You need to stay focused, but how much depends on your speed. You can roll slowly with brakes, roll quickly without brakes and pump (this is fun), or pedal to really get the adrenaline going. I enjoyed Derroura and the variety it provides. I enjoyed the fact that 90% is singletrack with only a small portion of fire road. I was on a full-sus and would say that a hardtail would be less comfortable but equal if not more fun.

16kms long - about 1 hour at a fast pace. Quite a technical trail due to the nature of the surface which is very loose in parts and has a lot of large rocks. The trail has improved as they have broken up a lot of the big stones and shale at the top half, after the climb from the mast. This makes the descent on the Corrib side much more fun, although you still have to work it hard. The sections dropping back to the car-park are still the best and a bit of reward for all the hard work before. Still a shame there wasn't some bigger berms and jumps on the downhills but all in all about 3 stars and a good training work out if you do two loops.

Hi, I have ridden this trail twice so far on a hardtail and full suspension mountain bike. Found this trail to be quite poor, alot of loose rock and shale which can be dangerous to the novice biker. The first half of the trail is climbing which was very badly made and for the decent it gets worse throwing your bike off as the rocks get bigger. The last run down to the carpark is the most enjoyable, fast and flowing with lovely single-track and boardwalks, but found alot of the boardwalks broken in sections so be aware.

Ballyhoura is still the better trails in the country due to the set-up and maintanance of the trails.



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