Hey, so you want to plan an adventure trip and not sure where to start? Well, you might just have found something useful!
Lets just say that i’m not an expert, but i do know something and if you want to have an adventure that does not include police stopping you for being in the wrong spot or people complaining about you riding illegal routes, here is a little something.
“Green Laning” & “Off Roading”
First, let’s be very clear here, all byways, bridleways and footpaths are called “green lanes”. Also when someone says “let’s go ride off road” – in the UK that doesn’t mean going completely off the path / track and riding wherever, on someone’s fields / woods or anywhere where the route is not marked on the map. Riding / Driving “Off Road” in the UK means riding on a legal route that is not sealed (with tarmac) and using only legal routes for your means of travel. The only time legally you can go truly off road is with land owners permission (e.g. Your Own Backyard). Have to note that there are places in the UK that allow for you to roam freely, but that’s only on foot, so don’t get confused! Hope that is clear and makes sense.
Introduction / Things to know:
To find these magic lanes, first of all you need to look at the right kind of map, and that’s Ordnance Survey maps (OS map) – these maps will show everything in a good detail, and to know if byway on the OS map is still Byway Open to All Traffic (BOATs) and is legal to ride / drive on – Definitive map of public rights of way. OS maps – all in one nice spot, and is based on Definitive map. Definitive maps – Each and every County Council in the UK will have their own Definitive Map, and those are The Maps Of All Maps in terms of rights of way. If any other map does not agree with the Definitive map – it’s wrong (More about it a bit later). Definitive Maps also have statements with them, and contain very important information about Rights of Way.
Here are few Electronic / Interactive Rights of Way Maps to explore:
Cambridgeshire Rights of way map
Northumberland Rights of way map
Lincolnshire Public Rights of way map
Most of the service providers like Viewranger / Locus and such, will have to offer Ordnance Survey maps as a Base map, not for free but because they offer a tool to plot your route on and their mobile apps can be used to navigate too, making these apps very valuable for us – Trail Riders. Also it really helps to have a good OS map as a base layer while navigating too! But i have to note that it is not necessarily a must, but it really helps if a phone or tablet is used for navigation.
On the Ordnance survey map:
(Green) – – – – – – – – – – – Footpaths, strictly off limits for vehicles.
(Green) — — — — — Bridleways, Strictly off limits for vehicles.
(Red or Green) +++++ +++++ Byways, (or BOATs “Byway Open to All Traffic) are what we need to look for (Colour depends on zoom / scale).
(Red or Green) ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● Other routes with public access (Also known as Unclassified County Road or UCR. Colour depends on scale, and not to be mixed up with ● ● ● ● ● ● CYCLE ROUTES that are Orange), these can be anything really, so should not be excluded while planning.
(Full OS map Legend is free and can be found on Ordnance Survey website).
Definitive map of public right of way
Definitive maps of public right of way (and statements), are actually legal documents, these are available for the public to inspect, however in order to do so, councils Definitive Map Team has to be contacted. To make it easier, councils are working on electronic versions of the map, however these Interactive Public Right of way maps are updated only after the real Definitive map and should be used only as a guide and should not be counted as Definitive maps, but for general use – they are just as good.
Interactive Public Right of Way maps
Interactive Public Right of Way maps, sometimes can be a bit tricky to find, and each and every one of them has its own map legend. Some councils mark Byways open to all traffic in Brown lines, some mark in brown – restricted byways. Some use OS maps as a base layer, some don’t.
Depends on the area you want to explore, first check council’s interactive Rights of way map, most likely will have to tick a few boxes for it to show information you need.
Worth to note that most lanes are physically marked by signs and arrows by councils, however more often those arrow markings are confusing and sometimes do not help at all as they mark the way but do not mark where it ends, and it’s very easy to keep going till you end up on the path you are not supposed to be on… As we are interested in byways mainly – these will be marked in RED arrows. More Information can be found on www.gov.uk > Publications > Public rights of Way.
Hard and confusing isn’t it?
Yes, absolutely, and it’s sometimes a bit frustrating when you want to have a bit of fun but it looks like all the world is against us who love riding/driving off road, also nothing is plain and simple, and for every mistake we do, we have to pay.. By penalty or by losing another trail… I know, I know…
Route planning!
Let’s get back to business now. So we know what and where to look for, now let’s see what tools we have for actual route planning.
What i use:
GoogleMaps – for Exploring
ViewRanger – For exploring OS map, plotting the route and navigation
TrailWise2 – For Exploring
Garmin Basecamp – For plotting the route, and saving the gpx
GPSBabel – For GPX file conversions (KML to GPX mainly)What i use:
Tools and software:
GLASS- UK (Green Lane Association) realised a long time ago that jumping between council maps while planning a bit longer trip is very inconvenient and created a very useful tool called TW2.
Trail Wise 2:
It is similar to OS map, but all lanes marked like on the Definitive map as well as each user can add comments on the lanes providing additional useful information, for example if a lane is blocked by the tree, someone blocked it off illegally or land owner no longer permits vehicular access on the particular stretch of the permissive byway, temporary restrictions etc. Thing is that it’s as close to a Definitive map as you can get, and more importantly it’s all in one place. Bonus points for user comments and the fact that it is possible to upload your route and check if any of the lanes on it should be avoided. Shame that it is not possible to plot the route on it, however there is a reason for that.
Garmin Basecamp:
Thats a computer software i can’t stop using as it’s free, very simple to use and not limited to how many layers or waypoints a user can use. Comes in very handy when you have multiple layers of Points Of Interest, and don’t want to mush it all up to one file, unless you want to. Bonus points for garmin users as once route is ready, i believe it allows to upload it straight to the device too. (Here is a Guide how to Install additional maps on BaseCamp)
GPSBabel
Another good free software to convert Google KML files to GPX files.
Getting ready to plot the route:
So I imagine that if you want to create your own route, most likely there are few spots that you have in mind that you want to visit, if no – for inspiration have a look at the list of maps with interesting spots i have created on “All The Maps” Menu.
There are few ways of doing that:
- Plotting the route on Google maps from one Point of Interest to another, then downloading KML file (google will accept GPX file if you want to upload, but if you want to download it will let only KLM and XLM) that needs to be converted to gpx for the rest of the tools/software to work, and re-route it over the trails you want to use( to convert i use GPSBabel – select the file, set what format to convert to – done!)
- Save locations off all POI on the tool/software you are using and use it as a layer while plotting the route. Good thing about it is that you get to keep all locations for future use, and include to the next route if you accidentally nearby (or exclude for what ever reason).
Personally I like to mark POI on the Garmin Basecamp and name them accordingly (fords, castles, etc. my favorite maps with locations can be found at “All The Maps” section, and can be used as a reference).
How I do it:
- If I’m more interested in lanes I would explore the area I want to visit on the OS map, for that I use viewranger or TW2, and I would check if there are any lanes that can be driven / ridden on. But, if i’m more interested in POI than lanes, i’ll use garmin base camp with my layers of POI or google maps and connect the dots. Save the route and export it.
- Then i would take that gpx with connected POI and upload it to Viewranger and TW2 and i would edit the route on viewranger while checking notes of each lane on TW2 (if that makes sense), or if lanes are priority, then i would just start plotting the route on the viewranger from start to finish and once im done, save it export the gpx file and import it to garmin basecamp or google maps, to see if my route goes past or very close to something interesting, and then i would go back to viewranger or basecamp and edit it accordingly.
Thing is that it probably sounds more complicated than it actually is, also because of open multiple windows it’s a really hard job if not impossible to create something really good on the phone, so it works best on a pc/laptop.
How it works in Practice
Let me show how it works in Practice in the easiest way possible. Let’s say we have all the software up and ready, all accounts with all the right places are set up too, and we are looking at the OS map on Viewranger (Logged in > Routes and Tracks > Create a Route from Scratch) and see this Awesome spot near Little Walsingham in Norfolk (52.88735448414374, 0.8643365953114077).
And here is for comparison free SABRE roads Basic OS map of the same spot:
4 Water Crossings in one spot, and 3 Unclassified County Roads (UCR), and we think – “Hey it’s a hot summer day today so why not go and splash through the fords and have fish and chips on the seaside once we are done!” and we set an idea to travel from Fakenham to Wells Next The Sea!
- We need to pick a good location to start our route, some local shop or garage is most of the time a very best bet, and in this case on google maps i found “Drfters” Fish and chips bar with car park and tesco in front of it, right click and firs on the meniu – Location: 52.830964252813324, 0.846137249516594, Address: 20 Oak St, Fakenham NR21 9DY, Easy to find, easy to get to – Perfect!
- Back on the Vieranger, we place the marker / waypoint, and if it’s not quite where you want it to be, click on the flag and then on the pencil, in the window you can just copy the location, press Save and it will appear where it should be, alternatively click on the square and drag it where it should be.
- Now we can place waypoint markers on those fords we want to visit, at the same time we could check what lanes are there, but lets just skip this bit for now, and lets find where we will have our fish and chips in Wells Next The Sea! Back to Google search…
- Here we go, Platen’s Fish and Chips! Sea side, the car park is on the other side of the road, and if the area is too busy, vehicles can be taken a bit further – closer to the sea itself, seems perfect! Let’s get the location of the Carpark in front and stick it on our route as the last point.
- ( If using Councils Rights of way map, this step can be skipped )
Now Let’s Save the route on Vieranger, and download it as a GPX file, by pressing Save, then Routes and Tracks > My Routes, and under “Routes I’ve Created” will be your route. Click on the Name. and on the next window on the right side > Meniu > Download GPX.
- Now let’s take that Gpx and see what Lanes we can use on our way, by opening TW2 and just dropping gpx on the map or simply using Councils Definitive / Rights of way maps on the side of the Viewrangers window.
- Personally I tend to use TW2 more than actual council maps, because of the comments people leave there – very useful as if someone notices a TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) on the lane, they will post it on TW2…
- Lets just grab some squares on Viewranger and move them over to the lanes that we see on the map, and see what we can get out of it.
- And here we go, noticed a few lanes just slightly up North of the starting point that looked on the way, however – not possible to pass. Depending on the zoom level and base map, it might look like there is access from both sides, where it is just from one. (52.843409314691044, 0.8470844251548967 Trap Lane, near Fakenham Bypass), or even better one here (52.83867822746583, 0.8712334413497222, To open in google maps press here ) where in TW2 it seems almost like a perfect trail, however in Viewranger it looks a bit dodgy, and Councils rights of way map shows that part of those lanes are actually bridleways… so easy to make a mistake, plot the route over those lanes and then wander around looking for the alternative routes… Something to keep in mind!
Lets keep it simple.
- A few lanes around, also few fords, so lets just mark them up by moving squares around in the most flowing way.
- PLANTATION ROAD SectionRef : 14102/10;
- WATERDEN LANE SectionRef : 14270/22;
- SPRING LANE SectionRef : 22183/10;
- HAND LANE SectionRef : 14100/10;
- BARSHAM FORD ROAD SectionRef : 14136/10 (Usually very deep and muddy ford!);
- GRAYS LANE SectionRef : 14133/12 (Ford);
- FARM ROAD SectionRef : 14013/12 (Ford);
- FORD ROAD SectionRef : 14106/10 (Ford);
- PLANTATION ROAD SectionRef : 14134/10;
- WESTGATE SectionRef : 14003/20 (Ford);
- WIGHTON ROAD SectionRef : 14089/10;
- MARKET LANE SectionRef : 10035/10;
- Wells-Next-The-Sea BOAT26;
And we get this:
Route that’s waiting to be explored!
Side Note
It’s best to use as many sources of info as possible, as some can show a bit more than others, some can make life a bit easier than others, what concerns planning tools – it doesn’t really matter what is used, most work in a similar manner, but at the same all of them need a bit of time to explore and familiarise – it’s part of the adventure!
Download Gpx File: (*.zip – compressed “zipped” file)
Please check the route before use! and if used – use it at your own risk!
