Out of Area - Places to Visit

If you want to try different places to ride there are a number of places with 1-2hrs travelling which offer great off road riding with options to try a few cross country jumps. For the more adventurous of you we have put some of the places frequently sited as the best bridleways in the UK. Note though these have not been ridden by the committee but if you have and wish to provide additional information for us all or if you know of any others please email us on nbhbridleways@gmail.com and we will add them for everyone to see.

Within 1-2hrs of Rochdale

• Craven Country Ride - Just outside Skipton West Yorkshire. This is a really lovely 500 acre farm with a lovely family running it. The route is changed often and takes about 2-3hrs to complete. There is lots of open countryside and options to jump some fences. There is also a cross country schooling area.

• Somerford Farm Ride - Near Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. The farm ride is on sandy tracks and incorporates a large number of cross country jumps. There are also two fields for x-country schooling one for those less competent up to 80cm and a bigger field with jums from about 80cm to over 1m.

• CF Fun Rides - Fun rides organised throughout the year. Rides through the Cheshire countryside with optional jumps suitable for novices to more advanced riders.

• Kelsall Hill Farm Ride - Near Delamere Forest, the route depends on the time of year and what’s on so it constantly evolves according to the season giving you a different experience as you meander around the farm. The route in summer tends to hug the farm boundaries so you’ll find yourself adjacent to grass fields an on tracks in the shadow of Primrose Hill Woods which is part of Delamere Forest. The route is about 6.5 miles long and takes about an hour and half depending on your appetite to jump the optional fences that are out there and your normal travelling speed. The course is marked so you shouldn’t get lost! 

• Trans Pennine Trail are in the process of developing a series of guides to the horse riding sections of the Trail. These are being developed for horse riders, by horse riders, and are designed to supplement the TPT maps. The guides will include such details as the features and hazards on the route in each section, and the availability of parking areas suitable for horseboxes. Click on link to get to their website.

Further Afield

• Cotswold Hills - The long distance riding route the Sabrina way (203 miles) runs through the Cotswolds, from Gotherington, north of Cheltenham to  Great Barrington near Burford where it joins with another riding route, the Claude Duval (a 25mile or a 50 mile ride), named after a notorious highwayman who used to frequent Hopcrofts Holt near Steeple Aston. The route links the Swan Way at Quainton (Buckinghamshire) with the Sabrina Way just across the Oxfordshire / Gloucestershire border. 

• Totternhoe Knolls, the Chilterns - A number of Bridleways around the Bedfordshire Countryside

• Great Windsor Park - A collection of wide paved paths and/or twisting woodland trails. You must have permits to ride these routes though.

• Monsal Trail, Peak District - An 8.5 mile trail from Chee Dale and Bakewell along the old former Midland Railway line.

• Coleridge Bridleway, Essex -  A 33 mile trail from Nether Stowey to Exford in the Quantock Hills and Exmoor