Tarw Du Black Trail at Coed Y Brenin
In this article, Kate and I visit Coed y Brenin near Snowdonia to tackle the Tarw Du (Black Bull) black trail. We wanted to see what one of the oldest MTB trails in the world was like and whether the slabs lived up to their reputation.
A short while back Katie Beaven and I went on a short trip to Snowdonia national park for an Adventure getaway hiking, biking and to get away from our busy lives before the COVID 19 Virus hit.
On one of the days, we decided to visit Coed Y Brenin and try the original MTB trail. Apparently the Tarw Du (Pronounced Taroo Dee, pretty sure I keep calling it Taroo Doo) is the first purpose-built MTB trail in the UK and potentially the world but who really knows.
The trail is 20.2km long and takes roughly 1.5-3hours to complete (It took us 4 because we spent at least an hour just riding the rock slabs). You can see some more details here: https://www.beicsbrenin.co.uk/tarw-du/
“Tarw Du means Black Bull in welsh”
The Tarw Du is another troublesome Black Route from Coed y Brenin. However, dissimilar to different courses at the Welsh trail centre, this one investigates the western side of the woods. The Tarw Du was initially called the Red Bull Trail back when Red Bull was the trail sponsor.
The trail features many rocky trails including a new section called Y-Slab that features multiple rock slabs. This was the main draw of the trail for us.