Trail sanitisation. My favorite bouncy rocky bits are no more… 🙁

Only a 200m stretch so far, but have they stopped here, or is this just the start…? 😕

do you mean houndkirk road?

otherwise known as the roman road?

otherwise known as the byway from ringinglow to the foxhouse pub?

i’d like to meet whoever decided to do this, and give them a chance to explain exactly what they think they’re doing.

i’d like to meet whoever decided to do this, and give them a chance to explain exactly what they think they’re doing.

Making the right of way safe for the traffic that use it.
I belive there is a requirement to make sure bridleways are passable by horses. We don’t get a look in…..

It was easily passable

yeah Burbage or Houndkirk?

houndkirk needed something doing but what they have done is terrible

Spending their budget by any chance – April is nearly on us…

no, its been on the cards for ages, Sheffield & Derbyshire have been slowly sanitising a lot of their stuff with various degrees of quality. this is silly though, seems they expect walkers, bikes and horses to use the old side and 4×4 to use the new. it means well its just badly thought out and if you read their press release on it they seem to openly not give a toss what anyone thinks about it.

Yeah, that’s the one.. ..Houndkirk / Burbage / Roman Road / Fox & Hounds thing. It’s like totally sterilised for the first 300 mtrs now. Like the Podge says, there’s a ‘reserve’ area for walkers (with bloody great boulders strewn along it) on the first 100 mtrs, then after that it spreads across the whole trail – looks just like road before they lay the tarmac. I could actually drive my Honda Civic along it now. Perhaps they’re actually going to tarmac it??

The most dangerous bit at present is the hoofing great boulders that seem to have been haphazardly almost deliberately strewn across the centre of the trails either sides of the cross road. It’s almost as if they want a biker to break their neck.

I don’t know the area well enough, but (assuming this is council-sanctioned work) why not get in touch with the local council Rights of Way Officer, and have a look on their website (or google) and see if they have a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) or similar? Ask them what pressure was put on them to make the ‘improvements’, by whom, and why. Make clear your feelings about it. There will also be a local access forum which is certain to have people (including cyclists) on it- who might be able to explain. If nobody speaks out, councils remain virtually unaccountable.

we’ve done all of the above, without much of what you could describe as a positive result.

i try to look on the bright side of things, so i will try to do so here:

houndkirk road was never the most exciting trail, it was mostly just a slow and tiring alternative to riding on the road if you wanted to get over the hill to the fox house.

now it’s got a smoother surface than most of the roads in sheffield, which should make it faster/easier to get over the hill.

i bet noobie mtb’ers will love it.

however, i suspect all it means is that the 4×4’s will now just belt along at 50mph, with all the walkers/horses/cyclists forced into the narrow old-surfaced strip to the side…

i have the guy in charge’s email if people want to complain to him… he doesn’t seem the most helpful of people, pm me if you want it

houndkirk road was never the most exciting trail

What!! 😯 😯

With a strong following wind yesterday I must’ve been doing at least 25mph all the way along there, bouncing over rock drops and jumps with not a soul in sight and a MASSIVE grin on my face. It was absolutely AWESOME…

It’s the first trail I discovered in the Peak that I actually really liked.

I’ll have none of this not the most exciting nonsense… 😐

But, yes it is now perfect for newbie MTB’ers, prams, bowling etc., etc.

it sounds like i need to show you some more trails…

🙂

Do you mean the whole figure of eight sandy rocky trail? i alsothink that its pretty cool! Are they doing this to whole loop thing? I’d be pretty gutted if so, its a great little taster before heading out further a field…. i truly hope its not the whole thing though 🙁

@ ahwhiles… yeah probably 🙂 most of the good stuff in the Peak seems to be slowish and technical, which is all well and good in its way, but I’m a big fan (the silent minority?) of stuff that is fast and whoopy. Anyways, I’m moving to Aberystwyth in about 3 weeks, so I should be spoilt for choice shortly. Feel like I’ve done the Peak to death over the last year.. It’s been good, but it feels like there are only really 3 decent different loops (or variations thereof) that you can ride, in the Dark Peak, at least.

Houndkirk roman road is one of my fave bits though. Hope they don’t totally ruin it, but it doesn’t look hopeful!