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My interest in offroad riding was sparked by family tales of ancient paths over the mountains. It's kept me on the bike most of my life.
If you look at a map of old settlements and pick a few in the same area, even if there are no current tracks shown, you can often guess at the route they may have taken.
The fun is then going out on the bike and trying to find if you're right. A bit of bushwhacking may be required. 🙂
In Scotland this is a useful resource, as are the old OS maps.
http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=145
Or going back further, I find this one useful.
https://www.pastmap.org.uk/map
It doesn't show the routes, but if you look at long abandoned places which were likely to have a sizeable population around them such as duns and forts, you can often find remains of tracks connecting them - but rarely a continuous one because of agriculture and forestry.
One thing to keep in mind is that flat land near waterways could well have been bog, so look a wee bit higher up the contour line.
Of course, a lot of the more obvious routes have been in continuous use and are now roads, but there's still lots untouched in recent times.
I'm a regular visitor to heritage paths, I think Colin's mentioned he's involved with updates to the site, maybe mistaken on that. I also use http://www.whoownsscotland.org.uk/geo/index.htm#zoom=6&lat=56.78197&lon=-4.9&layers=B0T to figure out just why those two black dashed lines on the map don't join up.
And of course geograph http://www.geograph.org.uk/
Great stuff! I've been looking a lot closer to home this last week or so, using Google maps and noticing strange shapes here and there.......this would be great to include in some short, weird-cycling routes!
I live just off Stane Street, the Roman Road linking Chichester to London.
Large parts of it are still present in the A29, A24 and footpaths /bridleways, and I've cycled /run various bits over the years, although there are a few missing sections.
I've always fancied doing the full length as close to the original straight line as possible, but have been put off due to traffic on some sections.
Been doing this for a while using my dad's old OS maps from the 70's. It's amazing how many old rights of way have disappeared under new roads and housing estates. I also found an old early MTB route guide book for the Brecon Beacons in a charity shop, has some very odd routes in it using paths that aren't on any maps or other guide books so will be exploring those when I can.
Yeah, I've updated a few of the Heritage Path descriptions. Most of the routes still exist in one form or another, maybe diverted by estate, forestry and now wind turbine roads. Some have completely faded through farming and lack of use.
I once walked Comyns Road (the least well known of the old routes from Atholl to Badenoch) . It would disappear for long stretches and then you'd come round a corner and spot a wee bit of terracing on a remote hillside and know you were still on track.
The focus this year is on updating the RoWs in the Scottish Hill Tracks book (The Scottish Rights of Way Society turned 175 years of age yesterday). I have a few I need to revisit so being in self-isolation is turning out to be even more of a pain than it would be otherwise.
Canmore is a site of constant wonder. Ideal for finding old settlements and identifying ruins.
Great stuff, i had a look at the site joshvegas linked to above, brilliant.
I like a bit of exploration.
Excellent. Self-confessed map weirdo here.
Some ancient RoWs do disappear under housing estates but equally you can find some on the 1850s OS that still sneak around an eighties housing build as it connects town with farms or iron mines.
The mapping here is shocking now and nonexistent going back 150 years. But it's still an unnerving feeling running or riding through an ancient beech forest having seen no-one for hours - yet a few centuries ago it would've been teeming with activity, charcoal, lime, moving corpses to the church... AFAIK all unrecorded, at least at an OS level.
Can't wait to have a look at those links
I've spent many hours on the NLS Side by Side site someone linked to above. Have also been on the heritage paths one a lot too.
As time goes on I'm finding the old historic tracks and roads more interesting than climbing hills (this is more to do with walking than cycling). There's something fascinating about walking routes that date back hundreds of years but have now largely been forgotten.
Not sure if it's still in print but there's a great book by Ralph Storer called Exploring Scottish Hill Tracks. Well worth a read.
I have a First Edition of the Ralph Storer. It was long my bible. Proper old school cycling. I had a notion to revisit the routes and update them.
I recommended it to Markus Stitz and he managed to buy one online last week.