Trails marked on OS map as black dashes

booktownman
booktownman Posts: 151
edited April 2013 in Routes
Can anyone help with this - what's the score with riding trails marked on OS maps as black dashes?

I can see there's a trail on Google sat images, it's marked on the map with black dashes, it's not designated as a footpath - can I legally ride it?

Cheers in advance,

BTM

Comments

  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    booktownman wrote:
    Can anyone help with this - what's the score with riding trails marked on OS maps as black dashes?

    I can see there's a trail on Google sat images, it's marked on the map with black dashes, it's not designated as a footpath - can I legally ride it?

    Cheers in advance,

    BTM

    they are private roads/paths so legally you can't apart from when you can!
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    edited April 2013
    Edited as I was talking Bollox :mrgreen:
    Lynskey R480

  • booktownman
    booktownman Posts: 151
    They're not private roads - they're up a mountain in the middle of nowhere in a national park. Not county boundaries either. They're trails that are regularly walked, but not designated as footpaths.
  • compo
    compo Posts: 1,370
    Yeah, they're paths.

    But not 'footpaths' ie public rights of way
    GREAT SUCCESS!

    Canyon Nerve XC7

    Stolen Carrera Vulcan
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    My bad I misread the OP.
    As said there paths not classified.Technically you can't ride them as they're not Bridleways but they're not technically Footpaths either so it's a grey area.
    Lynskey R480

  • scottfitz
    scottfitz Posts: 283
    What about in scotland, on OS map there are no footpaths or bridleway, just dashed black lines and dashed fireroads??
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    Different legislation.
    You can ride anything(within reason) in Scotland.
    Lynskey R480

  • scottfitz
    scottfitz Posts: 283
    ibbo68 wrote:
    Different legislation.
    You can ride anything(within reason) in Scotland.
    Does that include race them? I.E we can't race on brideway.
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    If no-ones looking :wink:
    Lynskey R480

  • booktownman
    booktownman Posts: 151
    ibbo68 wrote:
    My bad I misread the OP.
    As said there paths not classified.Technically you can't ride them as they're not Bridleways but they're not technically Footpaths either so it's a grey area.

    There must be an answer to this.

    Technically you can't walk on them either then?

    I can think of paths in the Brecon Beacons that are part of established walking routes, eg the Pen Y Fan horseshoe, but which aren't designated footpaths - they're marked with black dashes.

    If you can walk them, why can't you ride them?
  • sniper68
    sniper68 Posts: 2,910
    booktownman wrote:
    If you can walk them, why can't you ride them?
    Because under the PRoW act 1968 act in England and Wales it's only Bridleways/Byways/GreenLanes etc you can ride.
    Under the CRoW (2000) act walkers were given the extra freedom of "right to Roam" anywhere,path or not(unless specifically signed/MOD etc).
    Bikes/Horses were not included so we're still stuck where we were in terms of what we can (legitimately) ride.It is however up to the Landowner to prosecute for trespass and it's practically impossible to Police.
    I find if you're courteous then generally you get no hassle 8)

    Scotland has different(better?) legislation.The are no plans to change the legislation in England and Wales despite many different petitions.
    Lynskey R480

  • compo
    compo Posts: 1,370
    Yeah go wherever you can in the land of the Scotch
    GREAT SUCCESS!

    Canyon Nerve XC7

    Stolen Carrera Vulcan
  • lg18
    lg18 Posts: 92
    As far as I understand it, a GREEN dotted line is a legal footpath, a green dashed line is a legal bridleway (that you can legally ride on), but black lines (short or long dashed) are not necessarily legal rights of way (for riding or walking) (discretion of the land owner rather than a national "right of way"). However, with the new access legislation, if the map shows the shaded yellowish areas in the uplands, that is open access land, at least for walkers. I would personally interpret that as being able to ride on a black dashed (but not dotted) line within a yellowish-open-access area - this may not be the actual legal position officially, but it seems perfectly sensible, given that dashed is supposed to mean a bigger track for horses/carts/bikes as opposed to the dotted lines that are supposed to mean feet, sort of. But to be honest, surely there's plenty of officially legal green dashed lines for us? Occasionally to join 2 obvious legal bridleways up you might have to do 100m of "illegal" stuff, so either risk it if it looks like it won't do any harm, or get off and walk that bit.

    Scotland is great, there are fewer such worries. You can't actually ride anywhere - the access there is RESPONSIBLE access, and does not include inbye-fields, gardens, obvious things like that, and can't cause damage or disturbance to wildlife, livestock, residents etc etc - so a few grey areas but in practice, common sense should mean it's pretty obvious most of the time if you should or shouldn't ride.

    Lucy
  • booktownman
    booktownman Posts: 151
    I had an interesting chat with a Rights of Way officer for one of the national parks as I was considering getting involved in the Local Access Forum and seeing if there was any way of opening up some of these clearly well-used but undesignated paths to MTB.

    As someone above says, there is no official permission from the relavant landowner to ride OR walk on these undesignated paths. However, the ROW officer's feeling was that landowners aren't bothered until the path - or the people using it - become an issue.

    The advice was to be sensible, use your own judgement and don't rock the boat. Attempting to formalise the use of a path that - although - undesignated, is well known and regularly used by riders could go against you. It it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Categories