What is a path?

[Kermit power]

If you look on an OS map, you'll see footpaths, bridleways and byways in red lines of varying length dashes. There are also, however, just "paths". These look like bridleways, but they're black rather than red. There's one from the top of the Old Man of Coniston, for example.

What are these? Can I ride a mountain bike on them? I know I can't ride on footpaths, but as these don't seem to have the same legal status as a footpath, I'm wondering if they're open to us?

[ewenm]

They aren't rights of way, so theoretically the landowner could ask you to "get off my land" if you use them, regardless of foot/bike.

In practice, if you're not a dick, most walkers away from the honeypots won't complain about polite, considerate MTBers using footpaths and other paths.

[MC Bodge]

ewenm said:

They aren't rights of way, so theoretically the landowner could ask you to "get off my land" if you use them, regardless of foot/bike.

Old Man of Coniston is presumably access land for walkers, though.

[ewenm]

Not marked as "Access Area" on my map but mine is a few years old and it might all be Access Area now - I can't remember!

In general the second bit applies. Be polite, be courteous and most walkers won't object to MTBers on paths/footpaths. Some will still object of course.

[SixPotBelly]

Black short dashes are paths where no-one have any right of passage. They may be private, or they may be permissive paths (that is paths that the land owner permits people to use despite them not being rights of way). Whether it would be trespassing to cycle on one or not depends if the land owner has given permission for then to be ridden or not.

On that subject, don't forget you can also ride on a red dot footpath if you have land owner's permission. It's not that such a footpath is necessarily only for walkers but just that walkers have a right of passage and don't need permission, whereas cyclists don't and do.

(Of course, both cycle/horse riders and walkers have right of passage on a red dash bridleway and neither needs permission).

Edited by SixPotBelly on Friday 30th October 17:09

[Silver940]

Kermit power said:

If you look on an OS map, you'll see footpaths, bridleways and byways in red lines of varying length dashes. There are also, however, just "paths". These look like bridleways, but they're black rather than red. There's one from the top of the Old Man of Coniston, for example.

What are these? Can I ride a mountain bike on them? I know I can't ride on footpaths, but as these don't seem to have the same legal status as a footpath, I'm wondering if they're open to us?

I have actually ridden some of the paths round there. Some were easy riding and others a bit rocky and loose. No one seemed bothered by me being there.

[Roger Irrelevant]

A black dashed line simply means that there is a physical path on the ground, it doesn't signify anything about whether you can legally walk/ride over it, like SixPotBelly said. On the flipside, the presence of a dashed green line on a map (whether signifying a footpath or bridleway), doesn't mean there will actually be a recognisable path on the ground - it just means that you have a legal right to walk/ride over that route. I've learned this the hard way when planning routes in the Lakes; when several times what I thought from the map would be a passable bridleway turned out to be mile after mile of tussocky, boggy moorland! Google Earth is a godsend in this regard.