Green Lanes in NE England

[Lefty]

I was chatting to a couple of 4x4-owning friends in the pub recently and we were having a collectiove moan at the lack of green-laning opportunities in Scotland.

We hatched a vague plan about doing a weekend-long greenlaning trip to Northumberland with either a camping or b&b/pub stay on the Saturday night.

Anyone know a good source of info for green lanes in the NE of England or is it best just to go and buy the OS maps and find them ourselves?

Cheers,
Lefty

[Hooli]

http://www.way-finder.org.uk/

[Efbe]

you are really not looking in the right places then.

there are soo soo many green lanes everywhere. just have a look on maps for tracks and try them out.

[Hooli]

Efbe said:

you are really not looking in the right places then.

That's obvious, they've been looking in Scotland where greenlanes don't exist!

[Efbe]

Hooli said:

Efbe said:

you are really not looking in the right places then.

That's obvious, they've been looking in Scotland where greenlanes don't exist!

I was more meaning, that searching through the internet will only find you places other people go.

even if not called greenlanes in scotland, there are still 1000s of miles of forestry roads, small local tracks etc that are great for a bit of fun.

where abouts are you in scotland, i'm sure we would be able to find somewhere local to you.

[Lefty]

The closest thing to a UCR in Scotland is general wades road and it's been closed I drove it twice and it was pretty impressive.

Yes, of course there are loads of farm tracks and forestry commission tracks but it's not generally that easy to get permission to drive them.

We've already done a fair bit of researchg on tinternet about greenlaning or the equivalent in Scotland and it's pretty much a nono.

[Efbe]

Lefty said:

The closest thing to a UCR in Scotland is general wades road and it's been closed I drove it twice and it was pretty impressive.

Yes, of course there are loads of farm tracks and forestry commission tracks but it's not generally that easy to get permission to drive them.

We've already done a fair bit of researchg on tinternet about greenlaning or the equivalent in Scotland and it's pretty much a nono.

oh "permission"... right, your that sort of offroader, right.

in that case you need to approach landowners for permission.

In all honesty (and i've done a lot of offroading in my time) permission is not something that is usually worried about with forestry commission roads; just find a gate that is open or doesn't have one.
you do have to travel into the hills a bit for ones that aren't too well looked after anyhow. newer ones are usually built quite road like tbh, so avoid these.
My experience was from up in Perth, though have been right up north and over north-west of glasgow way.

[Lefty]

The only Forestry Commission roads I've seen could be driven by any car, not really what we're talking about.

And I wouldn't drive on a private landowners property without permission because I'd be pretty fked off if somebody did that to me.

I'm not that type of offroader, if that's what you mean...

[Efbe]

Lefty said:

The only Forestry Commission roads I've seen could be driven by any car, not really what we're talking about.

And I wouldn't drive on a private landowners property without permission because I'd be pretty fked off if somebody did that to me.

I'm not that type of offroader, if that's what you mean...

i wouldn't condone trespassing on private land by any means. that will likely get you shot:P

however if you follow the forestry commission roads up a bit higher in the hills, you will often find smaller tracks going out from these.
The stuff i was doing may have been a little more offroad than greenlaning, but it all depends on your definition.

I spent a bit of time around here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=56.579792,-3.6441...
there are larger tracks going up, which carry logging trucks, then further up smaller tracks branch off, some need very good clearance , others just like the greenlanes found everywhere around England.

personally I find greenlaning a bit boring and am always looking for a quarry to have a go at, but that's just because I don't like mud :P

[Lefty]

I'm opposite. There's a small quarry on the land where I shoot and I've had a bit of a play (in my old Unimog) but I prefer the idea of greenlaning. I loved driving the Corrie Pass, real pain it's closed.

Tried some RTV trials too but it's an awful lot of waiting around followed by 15 minutes of driving and then more hours of waiting. I find that pretty boring.

Cheers for the input though, will have a look at some OS maps of the area we're contemplating.

[Hooli]

A lot of councils have the definitive map online which will show more upto date rights of way than OS maps. I'm pretty sure the Lake District has all the greenlanes & any restrictions up online for example.
Last time I looked at a new OS map it was still showing RUPPs which haven't existed since the goddamn CROW act appeared a few years ago. The only things you can drive now are Byways & even then you need to check they aren't signed as Restricted Byways as you can't drive them either!

[100SRV]

I spent three days and nearly 500 miles green laning in the Lake District this August, I have never been to the area before but did spend a lot of time on research. GLASS or the TRF is your best resource as they have a national network of area representatives who can help and advise.

Don't be surprised if GLASS or TRF members are reluctant to pass information on at first - you need to earn trust as too many idiots see green lanes as an opportunity to "get muddy" rather than explore. If you want to get muddy please do so on private land - getting muddy is a by-product of green lane exploring and should NOT be the reason for using them.