Not troliing here but looking for info on whether you can actually ride anywhere on the hills in Holyrood Park . I’ve got a day off and kinda bored of the local East/ MidLothian stuff . Thought about doing some of the trails up near Little France then heading over to Holyrood park. I see Chris Hoy named the park as one of the top 10 rides in the country but always thought cycling was banned or frowned upon .

Any Ideas. ?

Yip totally ok to cycle there and some great dh/xc routes there is too. Start at the palace car park head up the tarmac path through the middle and at the top turn right and push up a bit and you will come out right at the edge of the crags. Follow them round and descend back to the car park. Start again same route this time turn left at the top and look for the mid level path which runs around the hilll. Wee bit of a climb then a fast techy descent. Ace. Plenty other dh options as well so just explore. Corstorphine hill offers good riding as well as does Blackford hill. Enjoy.

I suspect Chris Hoy was on about riding around the road rather than off road. A couple of guys on here ride there off road often though, there are a load of paths up there, just go explore.

It used to be illegal to ride off road in the park and I have been stopped by the police, had my details taken and threatened with a fine, but this was in about 1998. Not sure if the park legislation has been updated to override the land reform act. I’m sure the rangers would rather people didn’t hack around on bikes but it is pretty quiet in the evenings up there.

Druidh of this parish tried to get some actual confirmation on this and couldn’t.

It needs a court case to test it for sure.
Do the park regs actually ban cycling off road? – not at all clear although the wardens used to claim so
Does the LRA superceed the parks bylaws?
Is it “reasonable” under the act to ride there?@

I do and will continue to do so but only weekdays and evenings.

Good call TJ, it’s a bit infested with runners and walkers on the high holidays.

Last time I did a sedate lap on the road bike at lunchtime, a runner came full tilt down the hill in the middle of the road, the wrong way !

I do like a game of chicken. I did tell him it was a public road, with like cars, coaches and all that…

Get in touch with ahhjrene on ts. Hes up there a lot.

StanFree, it’s a tricky one. Lets put the legality to one side for a momment. The common paths are heavily walked and you’ll be stopping every 30 seconds to let someone past. You’ll likely get some snidey comments and a park ranger will stop you and give you hassle.

Saying that, it’s my local and i’m up there regularly in the evenings when it’s hugely quieter/dead.

Sent you a message via FB.

Last time we went through this we found some legislation which confirmed it was OK to ride on paths (no definition of what a path is) and no more than two abreast.

It’s unclear whether or not the LR(S)A over-rode this, although it could also be argued that cycling off-path and more than two abreast would be “unreasonable”.

I contacted a Historic Scotland to get clarification and was told that all the park rules are clearly displayed at the entrances. Last time I was up that way, I had a look at the Commonwealth Pool gateway and the rules (IIRC) made no mention of cycling whatsoever.

I’m tempted to actually go up there one day, cycle around until one of the park officers appears and then ask him to point me at the relevant notices.

Personally I think MTBers would ruin Hollyrood park if more went. It’s pretty contentious up there, same as other places in Edinburgh really! It’s a total no-go during the summer due to hundreds, maybe thousands, of tourists/people enjoying the hill.

It’s best as a quiet evening venue IMO.

Never had any hassle, although I only tend to ride there when it is dark and hence quiet. The path across the middle is fine, as is the radical road. I often get words of encouragement from walkers when huffing and puffing up the radical road in the early evening on the singlespeed.

I might try a spot of trailbuilding up there…..

🙂

Big gap jump over the road?, mind and have enough vert to clear coaches

Pixelmix – good effort!

It certainly benefits from a bit of stealthy trimming from time to time.

Im going to head in tommorow and have a wee look at Bigthunder and Paul Gillespie’s routes , Shame the proposed Bike trails up near Craigmillar castle never cam to anything . I blame the Tories personally. 😀

Spoke to the ranger about craigmillar and it seems it was a goer until the funding got pulled. Enjoy Arthurs Seat. Class,class views from the crags.

stanfree, thanks for calling and letting me know about tomorrow…sounds like to much hassle…walkers and dogs..think i’ll head down to gt or inners, i will be leaving about 09.15 dude. 2hrs wasnae enough today!

Aye nae bother , If my mate dosent want to go to Hollyrood I might give you a shout . Looking like the weather Is to be really crap though so will see what happens.

Bye the way what kind of name is Corriejakester. ?

stanfree – want some urban singletrack? I am slowly devising routes around the city – got a 25 mile route with around half singletrack now. Gies a shout if yo awant to come and play / help me explore. I am free tomorrow

I have about 4 different descents on Arthurs seat / whinny hill / holyrood that I use

Sounds Good Tj , I’ll give you a shout on Fb later If im definately heading to Hollyrood . It would be around 9.30 ish If that sounds good.

sound.

Couple of hours plaguing around in the park – 4 different descents. Good fun

I had a look at the regs which are posted at the entrance nearest teh commonwealth pool. the only mention of bikes is as Druidh says – no more than two abreast. there is a clause saying that you need permission to use a mechanically propelled vehicle other than an invalid carriage offroad – would this cove rbikes?

Mechanically propelled vehicle, used to include bicycles on the local bylaws here in East Lothian at Aberlady Nature Reserve,
Then local Bylaws were replaced with the new (responsible) Open Access and allowed all users of the then renamed shared paths,
but they never put new signs up saying this when the old signs were removed,
Maybe the same case for the park?

Couple of hours plaguing around in the park – 4 different descents. Good fun

ooooh i’m tellling Muuumm!

coastkid – being a royal park I don’t think its clear if the LRA superceeds the park regs. Maybe needs a court case to set precedent

Pretty sure that the various Road Traffic laws consider a bicycle to be “manually propelled”. If there’s any doubt, take the chain off and use gravity?

i was up in Holyrood Park today and a ranger stopped me – under no circumstances can anyone cycle there, except on the green-tarmac’d paths or the roads. strictly NO CYCLING ON THE TRAILS.

the park is protected by an act of parliament that is older than the right to roam/open access one – and the right to roam one does not specifically override the original act. or so he said. 🙁

You should have asked him to show you a copy of these “rules”. As I’ve pointed out already, they are posted at the gates of the park and DO NOT mention where you can and can’t cycle.

well i did give as good as i got, but he just kept going on about these acts of parliament…

You should have got yourself arrested so we can have the court case to give a real ruling.

Personally I will continue to ride there under the provisions land reform act

the guy was probably mid-30s, had long dark hair and a beard. he was wearing a black and orange technical jacket with a Historic Scotland patch on the sleeve. if you see someone like that up there, pull some massive rocket skids in front of him! and i’m sure you’ll get your day in court 🙂

The GF was threatened with an asbo earlier this year by a Ranger/Park Police type person.

PaulGillespie – Member

The GF was threatened with an asbo earlier this year by a Ranger/Park Police type person.

Really – I’d love to see how they could make that stick :-0

TandemJeremy – Member

PaulGillespie – Member

The GF was threatened with an asbo earlier this year by a Ranger/Park Police type person.

Really – I’d love to see how they could make that stick :-0
He didn’t say what she was doing to get threatened with an ASBO though did he! 😆

🙂

Good point, i wasn’t there…..I dread to think! 😆

I had some free time this afternoon, so in the middle of a wee bike ride, I thought I’d do some “on site” investigation….

Having contacted the Rangers and Historic Scotland previously, I had been told that the Park Regulations were all available for scrutiny at entrances to the Park.

Under Prohibitions, it’s worth looking at number 9.

entering any part of the Park after having been requested by a Park Constable or Police Constable not to do so or in contravention of a notice or sign

(My bold)

Further up the hill, there’s another wee sign ….

Please cycle on the roadway and green cycle path only. Please do not cycle off-road

For me, that backs up the prohibition above and means that under current legislation we are restricted to the roads and the one green path from the top roundabout down to the pond.

And for the roadies….

No more than two abreast and a speed limit of 30mph. 🙂

Just added a Tag!

The request is to please not cycle offroad, not you must not. 🙂

Mmm, 20″ wheels, looks like they’re trying to encourage BMX antics.

Yeah – I had a giggle at that one too!