Lee and Cragg Quarries
About Lee and Cragg Quarries
Lee Quarry is not your usual trail centre, think of it as more of a massive oversize playground for mountain bikes. An ideal place to challenge your existing skills and improve them.
The quarry is packed with drops, berms and other technical features you can spend all day sessioning. Lee Quarry can also be combined with Cragg Quarry to provide more of an XC route of around 17km. Other routes including the Mary Towneley Loop and the network of bridleways across Rossendale can also be easily accessed from the quarry.
Lee and Cragg History
History of the quarries
The first of the trails were developed in 2008 starting with the basic 4.5km red loop with a 1km black loop coming off the red half way around.
The trails were designed by Dafydd Davis with the addition of the first skills area and some trials areas built with the help of Ali Clarkson. Short and sweet and very rocky probably summed up this initial phase of building which generated some great review in MTB press.
In 2009 Rowen Sorrel got involved and added some of his signature flowing single track and berms giving us the rollercoaster section. 2009 was also the start of the Brownbacks race series and the first year the Singletrack Weekender was held in the quarry. Early 2010 saw further work on the trails adding new sections including the three descent lines in the middle of the quarry and the first of the pump tracks. 2010 also saw the openning of the trails in Cragg Quarry.
2011 finally gave us the link between the two quarries, the second pump track and even more drops and skills areas.
There's more planned for 2012, work has been underway to bring a further quarry, Facit, into the mix and plans are afoot for a proper trailhead and facilities at Futures Park. There's also plans to waymark a number of natural routes all starting from Futures Park getting riders out of the trail centre and into the surrounding hills.
Ride at the quarries
Lee and Cragg Trails
The quarry has one main loop with a black option and a number of skills areas and pump tracks.
The outer red loop is approximately 6km including the climb up from the car park and can be done in around 20 to 30 minutes. Most people will make several trips around the loop, sessioning sections and detouring off to play on the descent lines, black options or pump tracks.