Grassington (and the Dales): recommendations

[al-onestare]

Hey there - SE rider ahoy

I'm spending 4 days in the Dales in July as part of me holibobs. I'll be staying in Grassington and I'm on the look out for recommended off-road routes nearby. Out and backs, loops are all good. I'll have 3-4 hours a day dedicated to riding and I'm ready for any terrain. I've been to the Dales many times so I'm familiar with the area but off-road trails are a blank. What routes would you recommend?

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

From Grassington the first I would look at would be to head to the pub at Kilnsey then head up Mastiles Lane and follow it up to Malham Tarn. From there we usually the bw that heads over the top of the moor and down to Arnecliffe then back along the road.

If you fancy a longer route you could head over to Settle from the Tarn following the bw’s.

Another route, taking in a bit more road would be to head to Rylston then follow the bw over Barden Moor. When you get to the road on top of the Moor there’s a bw that takes you down to Bolton Abbey. From there cross the river and follow the road to Burnsall via Appletreewick then back to Grassington.

If you don’t mind a short drive from Grassington I can suggest some more and Gisburn Forest is always worth a visit imo.

 

[al-onestare]

Nice one - thank you. I'll dive into these a bit more.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

No worries. To be honest if you head up Mastiles to the Tarn there are loads of routes to keep you busy with a great decent down to Calton or longer ride off road if you head towards Hetton then over Sharphaw to Skipton. All depends what sort of mileage you want to do.

 

[brocklanders023]

Re:

Oh, and check out the Yorkshire section as they recently did a Settle to Malham loop that you could easily tag on to from Grassington.

 

[albash82]

I've a real nice short loop I do with the wife (or more recently, when still pretty much sh*tf*ced after Ilkley beer fest). Park up behind the Craven arms in appletreewick, pedal along the road under Simon's Seat through Skyreholme, after it turns to bridleway and you've climbed a bit, turn north at the junction and up black hill road, fast descent drops you to the road just below stump cross caverns, turn left (west), then left again back towards appletreewick...
When the road bends left, you'll see a bridleway on your right which takes you down some pastureland to a farm. The track (Kail lane) from the farm to the bottom road is an absolute delight! There's plenty of ways you can make longer routes, across from Nidderdale even (more my stomping ground). If you do venture over that far, the Ramsgill / Middlesmoor / Scar house reservoir / Dale Edge / Bouthwaite loop is always a nice pedal. Good bike shop in Summerbridge with an interesting retro museum too

 

[al-onestare]

You did the see the date of the original post right?

 

[albash82]

Yeah I just totally time travelled back a year and got lost in this forum... :facepalm: