Bridleways and mountain bikes

Looking down into Scugdale

Last month I replaced my old mountain bike, which hadn't been used for years. I bought a modern trail bike, a Whyte 905, and have started exploring trails around the North York Moors. Bikes aren't legally allowed on footpaths so I'm trying to keep off the paths which criss-cross the moors. They are allowed on bridleways, which are basically paths for horse-riders, and since these are clearly marked on OS maps it should be easy enough, in theory, to plot routes across the open countryside using minor roads and bridle paths.





On Friday I climbed Carlton Bank and tried to find a route over the moors to Scugdale and Swainby. The 1:25,000 OS map for the North York Moors shows a bridleway heading south from the summit of Carlton Bank. On the ground it's a broad track running across the moor, easy to follow and easy to ride, at least as far as Brian's Pond, where a signpost indicates the bridleway heading right towards Barker's Crags. I turned off the track and soon found myself ploughing through a muddy heathery mess; more of a sheep track through bog than a bridleway and basically unrideable. I backtracked to the main route and followed it south until it reached a locked gate; on the map the footpath ends at a farm track. I'm not sure why such a clear track across the moors would end at a locked gate but no doubt the landowner has a reason. Retracing my route back to the bridleway, I found a gate opening onto a path heading steeply down the hillside towards Scugdale Hall. I doubt this steep, rocky and muddy route is often taken by horses and it certainly wasn't rideable on a mountain bike. Even on a dry day, which this wasn't, I wouldn't have stayed on the bike for long. So I walked down to the road at the bottom of the hill and followed it down the valley, picking up a lovely section of bridleway through the fields and woods above Swainby.

Not all bridleways are rideable.