About us
We have been designing and building mountain bike trails since 1989, initially wild trails in and around Coed y Brenin Forest, more often than not without permission. We were young, had energy, loved bikes and being out, the opportunity was there... it’s what you'd do.
Slowly through early engagement with Forestry Enterprise, we were tamed into becoming paid contractors. Our first commercial commission was in 1992 at Coed y Brenin where we designed and built the Realvert Dual Descender with a group of friends for Forest Enterprise. It was a scrappy piece of woodland with more water than land, after a lot of hard work and a resourceful accumulation of materials, we delivered a track that wasn't too bad, but crucially was much better than what had been there before.
Since then one thing led to another, we learned, evolved, worked hard, got qualified and took our opportunities. Experience from our other sports, business and personal interests began to grow new opportunities in activity based consultancy, which in turn helped to provide stability and a wider package of services.
Eventually after many years and projects we seem to have emerged as one of the leading track & trail design, adventure activity and tourism consultancies. We have worked all across the UK, worked with amazing people and organisations in great locations. It remains a genuine privilege to deliver trails, tracks and projects that hopefully make peoples lives just that bit better.
Sounds grand... but we’re still a small professional outfit that simply believes in the positive impacts these projects can deliver... and are a bit passionate about not ruining where we work, live and play!
Why Associates?
Associates refers to the fact we generally work with other freelance consultants, typically these are leading experts in their field who bring essential or unique expertise and experience to a particular element or area of a project.
Given every project we work on is different and requires a wide range of different skills and abilities, we have found that assembling the best project team possible comes from hand selecting the best for each and every project. This ensures our clients project objectives are more likely to be delivered or exceeded and the project risks reduced significantly. Quality becomes a given, experience and expertise always at leading edge.
We have run the business in this way, lean and agile, from its inception. Fundamentally it is a business that manages projects on behalf of clients, these can range from fund applications, trail designs, adventure tourism studies, audits, feasibility studies, etc…. all remain projects of one type or another and as such are best served by assembling the best team of experienced consultants or service providers available.
Contact
We are based in Dolgellau, Mid Wales in the UK. We work in all areas of Great Britain: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and home in Wales. Pleased to quote for work in Europe and overseas.