The internetz is an ace place for whiling away the hours (or researching -Ed) daydreaming about your next ride. Our comrades over at Grit.cx have found the perfect site to plan your next adventure/dirty weekend/roadtrip: –  bridlewaymap.com
“To sum up the site, its a visual representation of the entire UK’s bridleway network (it may not be a super up to date as the latest mapping software in places). When you look at the UK as a whole, it shows how much access the adventure minded cyclist has to paths and tracks away from the black top. When you factor in that ORPA’s RUPP’s and BOAT’s aren’t necessarily included the mind can be boggled at the options that present themselves.
So, anyway, have a dig around and explore. Let us know if you find anything and make a plan for an adventure you didn’t know you could do – we’ve certainly found some interesting options.” – Grit.cx
Don’t miss out on their other site http://bywaymap.com/ shame you can’t overlay them both.
The first link is wrong, it’s bridlewaymap.com.
Oh, that’s just sourced from openstreetmap so you might as well use the original site to get all paths.
RUPPs don’t legally exist any more, were all reclassified as either BOATs or restricted byways
I’d certainly check an OS map before you plan a route with that – I’ve just looked at the New Forest and according to Bridlewaymap.com its littered with bridleways!
They may be gravel tracks, but even a lot of those are officially off-limits to cyclists.
What surprises me mostly is the size of some areas in Wales and England that are virtually bridleway free.
I can understand why in the urban and suburban areas, but some ostensibly rural regions, look at Wales away from National Park areas, Kent, north of Cambridge – Barren!
“What surprises me mostly is the size of some areas in Wales and England that are virtually bridleway free.”
On the other hand the Quantocks looks like a green splodge.
“When you look at the UK as a whole, it shows how much access the adventure minded cyclist has to paths and tracks away from the black top.” Only if you colour in the whole of Scotland in green. To me it shows just how LITTLE access there is south of the border. Useful mind, I have some off-road touring plans in mind.
Its missing most of the bridleways round my area, and the one that is on there is wrong. Good idea, but just using the Ordnance Survey option on Bing maps shows up more ROWs.
Confirms how few bridleways there are in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons,
Down here in the wilds of Essex, the County Council have an on line map service for rights of way.
Very useful
http://www.essexhighways.org/Transport-and-Roads/Getting-Around/Walking/Public-Rights-of-Way/Interactive-map.aspx
You all laugh when I talk about the mountain biking mecca that is Ilkeston, but now it’s there for you in, er, green and white….
And you wonder why I moved from Kent to Scotland! Although there are quite a few bridleways in Kent missing from that map.