Are these public rights of way ? Hard to define a trail and a drover road i suppose.Their are loads of old linking trails around north Wales,does anyone know if they are just none developed ancient roads or are they privately owened ??

Thanks

To get the complete picture, you will need to view the definitive map which is normally kept at Council offices. From OS maps you will have shown the usual bridleways/byways but remember that with permissive ones, the permission is not set in stone and can be changed back.

There are also "white roads" shown on OS maps although without being marked as bridleway/byway. The only way you can tell whether these are public is from the definitive map.

It's really quite fascinating these ancient tracks and how/what they were used for.

Thanks CG.These trails are perfect mountain bike linking lanes.Living near Oswestry these drovers trails were apparently the "roads" used by farmers from North wales to take stock to market.Oswestry was,and still is to an extent,a large important market town.I need to have several "discovery" days in the coming months me thinks.

Thanks

Of course it may be different in Wales! Just had a quick look at my mapping software and presumably you mean the area west of Oswestry?

I have ridden around Rhydycroesau and have done the classic Wayfarer's. From memory there did seem to be lots of tracks but not all of them were actually rideable!

It might be worth doing some digging as there is the odd enlightened Council that has the definitive maps online.

Discovery Days sounds the way to go 8)