The best MTB trails around Llansawel

Oodles of glorious singletrack on the Gorlech trail! Narrow and rutted or a little wider with more berms and switchbacks, it's all good to ride year-round. The trail is all well signposted so it's hard to get lost here.

Fast and flowy, this is the thrilling last descent on the red-rated Gorlech trail. After all that climbing, you'll be glad to savour all the downhill as you make your way back to the trailhead.

Don't lose your way here: there are many different MTB trails, walking routes and fire roads that intersect at this river crossing so it can get a bit confusing! I'd say it's a really good idea to have a GPS track of your chosen trail with you (or even better downloaded for offline use) at Brechfa, as many of the trails criss-cross or are multi-directional, so it's easy to get lost!

Ride down through this glorious natural bowl with huge berms and some steeper gradients, a rooty corner and some slightly rockier sections on the black-rated Brechfa Raven trail.

A steady climb out of the car park and up into the woods to get you warmed up before hitting the trails, or the final descent at the end of your ride, this wide, gravelly fire road is a beautiful part of Brechfa. Look out across the Cothi valley as you ride, lush green farmland often watched over by soaring red kites. The tree-lined fire road is also beautiful in the autumn.

Don't be fooled: there's a lot of climbing on the black-rated Raven trail at Brechfa and this early section seems like the worst of it! After the first singletrack, you then cross the river and head up again, this time on a seemingly impossible singletrack — at least it was for us in the wet and mud of winter! The steep gradient will challenge almost all riders, and we found ourselves hopping off and pushing on the worst sections. Keep your eyes peeled as you hike though, as we found some cows in the woods up here! Not what you'd expect to find usually in woodland. It's beautifully green and mossy up here, and there are some fun, flatter sections once most of the climbing is done before you hit the descents proper.

This narrow log bridge is featured on the Raven black trail here at Brechfa, crossing the stream. It comes as a bit of a surprise as you'll probably have a bit of speed coming into it after the fun berms, so take it easy! There's just enough space to ride over but of course you can get off and push if you prefer.

After a traverse across the scrub, you descend into the woods for these rocky slate turns, before a faster rocky straight and a rock roll into the fire road. It looks worse than it is!