Ireland has one uplift bike park. One. The whole island. If you want a van to drive you to the top and proper gravity trails on the way down, Bike Park Ireland in Rostrevor is the only option. So when a few of us got the chance to go, we went.
It's up in Co. Down — you cross the border from the south, road signs switch to miles, and you drive along Carlingford Lough with mountains behind it. Looks brilliant even from the car. We got there in the morning, got set up, and joined the queue for the first uplift.
The uplift is a van with a trailer for the bikes. Not a chairlift like the big European parks — just a van driving up a forest road — but it does the job and you get loads of runs in across the day.
One uplift park for the whole island. So when you get the chance, you go.
The trails are woodland — stays damp in there, which in Ireland means it stays damp basically always. That day we got lucky with the weather but the trail was still slippy in places, especially on roots. You have to account for that. You can't just charge everything the way you might on a dry summer day.
We spent most of the day on the blue trails. There's good stuff there — proper flow sections, a few technical bits that catch you if you're not paying attention. There's a rooty section that got me the first time — didn't see it coming and had to wrestle the back end back into line. Second run I knew it was there and rode it fine. That's how trail riding works. First run you're learning it, every run after that you're actually riding it.
a friend spent most of the afternoon on the jump line. He practises jumps on a flat field near his house — I always thought that was a bit of a sad way to spend your time but you can't argue with the results. He was linking the whole thing by the end of the day.
I was on the hardtail. A mate was on full sus. On the rougher, chunkier sections you could see the difference — he was carrying more speed through stuff that was scrubbing me off. Not a massive gap, but noticeable. Another data point for the full sus saving fund.
Long drive home. Worth it. Would go again.
If you're going: get there early, queue builds up fast on good-weather weekends. And bring a change of shoes — the ground near the trailhead is mucky regardless of the weather.