Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

bernie1973

Been walking the dogs round Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh this evening and was passed by three separate guys out riding off road. Cycling in the park has always been banned other than on the road or cycle path. Does anybody know whether this has this changed or were these lot just riding outwith the permission of her Britannic Majesty? Treason is still a capital offence is it not?

Northwind

It's an act of civil disobedience unseen since Wat Tyler did a wheelie in front of King Richard 2

bernie1973

I did wonder why they were being pursued by Beefeaters.

bill_gates

Definitely still not permitted, the park rangers take the laws and uphold them pretty seriously which is fair enough imo

schmako

I've taken the bike up to the top once, but the ridings pretty crap. Never had any bother, but probably wouldn't do it again anyway!

bompington

Many years ago, as a student, I used to climb (a lot of us did) on Salisbury Crags - as we were almost always just bouldering, i.e. no ropes or other gear, it was easy enough to disappear on the very rare occasions when the park police wandered along, especially as they were never about in the evenings.
Until one time when they mounted a big operation with two landrovers coming along the track and half a dozen bobbies on foot at the top of the crag and on the grasy slope below - and there you have it, that's my criminal record. A lot of the large bunch they caught gave false names, something that even as a naive student I figured was a bit risky in case they took it further, but needless to say that was the last I ever heard of it - in the end I don't think anyone was even formally cautioned.

It is an interesting point that activities like climbing and cycling are actually illegal there though, is there anywhere else in the country where they are explicitly banned? Especially in the light of the scottish access laws that definitely allow you to do both activities more or less anywhere you want?

EH_Rob

maybe these guys are unaware of the rule, i do sometimes wonder why people insist on riding in there when its a) not especially interesting or exciting and b) you can pretty much ride legitimately in the entire of the rest of scotland, and you specifically aren't meant to ride in this bit.

there's a perfectly good range of hills a few miles away from there where you can ride your bike.