PAUL KIRKWOOD takes a spin through the Sherwood Pines after his first choice of ride went pop...

My disappointment was hard to contain. I had driven 60 miles on a beautiful sunny day only to find that the destination of my bike ride was closed. The National Trust-owned Clumber Park estate near Worksop was being prepared for a pop concert that evening. I cursed and proceeded another ten miles further south to Robin Hood country feeling anything but a merry man.

Sherwood Forest was almost as disappointing. The visitor centre - which I hoped would suggest alternative routes - was also closed. The main purpose of the neighbouring cafes and shops was seemingly to provide foreign tourists with signs for the backdrop of their holiday snaps and to sell tacky green felt Robin Hood hats for £1.80 - which, of course, I had to buy.

A sign indicated that the forest contains no circular cycle route and the bridleways do not pass by the main attraction, the Major Oak, beneath which Robin Hood and his Merry Men are said to have met.

That being so, I left the bike in the car and walked to it. Measuring ten metres in girth, weighing 23 tons and knocking on a bit at about 800 years old, the tree is an impressive - if ungainly - sight.

Metal posts prop up the branches like sticks supporting the arms of an old lady. Her dignity is further upheld by a fence behind which people take the obligatory pictures as if shooting an elephant at the zoo. There can be no more famous tree in the country.

In my quest for a bike ride it was a case of third time lucky. The nearby Sherwood Pines Forest Park was heaps better. In contrast to Sherwood Forest it is the sort of place only the locals know about - if that's how you describe the British holidaymakers from the nearby Center Parc that I expect form the majority of its visitors.

The visitor centre has the air of sporting conviviality normally associated with a ski lodge, but with hire bikes propped up in cabins in place of skis. In keeping with the skiing feel, the routes are colour coded according to difficulty.

No maps were available at the time so I had to memorise the appropriate colours and numbers from the board at the start of the trail. Thankfully, the waymarking was as good as my memory. Full marks then to the Forestry Commission which manages the park.

These trees are considerably younger than those I'd seen earlier. Riding through the glen was actually riding through the plantation, but no less pleasurable. "Do you know the way back?" a woman asked me. "Every tree looks the same!"

Indeed it does.

My eight-mile route followed a corridor through the forest. Only the occasional clump of purple heather broke the wall of wood formed by the pencil-thin pines and their bushy tops.

Some of the other cyclists seemed rather over-dressed for such a sojourn but I expect they were bound for the training circuit with space to ride at speed or the off-road black runs with obstacles. For lesser mortals the only hazards are occasional curving descents when you need to go steady to avoid ending up like Kevin Keegan in that Superstars cycle race.

There are short cuts to the start if you're running out of puff or towing a trailer. Back at the visitor centre is a restaurant, scenic picnic area in a clearing, and excellent children's play area with treehouses linked by a raised wooden walkway.

Sherwood Pines Forest Park is a long way to go for such a short cycle ride, but a visit would be well worthwhile if you combined it with something else for a family day out or happen to be in the area with time to spare.

My sunny day was not wasted.

Fact file:

Location: Off the B6030 between Old Clipstone and Ollerton in north Nottinghamshire.

Opening hours/admission: Sherwood Pines Forest Park is open 8am-dusk daily. Entry: Free. Parking £2 all day.

Website: Within www.forestry.gov.uk.

Mountain bike hire: £4 for one hour, £6 for two hours, £8 for three hours, and £12 for the day. Trailer bikes and trailers also available at additional cost. Tel: Sherwood Pines Cycles, 01623 822855.

Navigation tip: After passing point 11 on the circuit you will come to a T-junction on an asphalt road without an obvious sign. To get back on track turn left and then soon right.

Route planning tip: You could double the length of the ride by cycling via Edwinstowe to Sherwood Forest and around a corner of it along bridleways (making a minor walking diversion to the Major Oak).

Updated: 08:51 Saturday, August 03, 2002