Forestry England Roads

[Captain Stupido]

Probably a silly question, but I was born in London, so when it comes to riding off road I'm still a clueless townie in many respects.

Now I'm lucky enough to live in Devon. There are quite a few Forestry England sites around here, centred around Haldon which has designated bike and walking trails. There are also miles of forest roads at the main site and other smaller sites nearby. The woods are all open to public access and mainly seem to be popular with dog walkers.

Forestry England don't seem to publish any information on the public use of forest roads. They're obviously not accessible to cars as they're usually gated, but walking is not an issue. What's the score officially with cycling on them? I've done it, but I'm never sure whether it's either legal or socially acceptable!

It's funny, when you look at the Forestry website they tell you all about the designated trails but there's no mention of the forest roads. I've just been looking at some maps and noticed a nice little loop at a local woods... it seems they don't exactly encourage it, but they don't tell you not to do it either!

 

[Antstark]

I am a member of Forestry England and cycling on the forest roads is fine with the usual caveat for awareness of other people or forestry operations. Mentioned in the trail grading bit on their website.

 

[bikeworkshop]

I am a member of Forestry England and cycling on the forest roads is fine with the usual caveat for awareness of other people or forestry operations. Mentioned in the trail grading bit on their website.
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Great share

I don't think forestry England or NRW want to imply or create a right, so it's hard for them to express their support for cyclists.

I do worry that hordes of ebikes might make cyclists less welcome in certain areas - but so far so good.