Hi guys im off to chatsworth on sunday so me and a mate want to do a ride around this area. Looking a 2/3 hour circuit but never really ridden around this area. Have any of you lot got a loop we could do cheers.

Buy the ‘White Peak mountain bike guide – the Pure Trails’ and pick one from there. The 5 Dales circuit is a good one – near Bakewell, takes me about 3 hours, lots of nice scenery and some fun bits. Watch out for the decent into Darley Bridge though – the last 300 yards can be lethal

Don’t do anything out of a book round there, they are all rubbish. All the good stuff is cheeky. I’ll put a decent route together tonight when I get home

I enjoyed this one:

http://www.mountainbikerides.co.uk/routes/1-the-peak-district/12-eyam-a-bakewell.html

You could extend it buy parking at the garden centre in Chatsworth heading up the bridleway from Carlton lees, over carlton pastures down through manner wood and along the dismantled railway to bakewell. That would make it longer than 2-3 hours though!

STR – would you mind passing that on to me too? (luke . bateson at googlemail . com)

I grew up in Ashover so have ridden in this area a lot but I was always a good boy. Now i’m older and live south of Nottingham I need a good route to make the trip to this area as the dark peak is the same driving time.

The cheeky route looks a good option mate, cheers.
😀

Lets assume you are starting from Chatsworth

Go up the road through the middle of the houses out of Edensor (not the main road) and after approx half a mile the road turns to doubletrack – follow this until you hit a back lane (road) and turn left up a sharp incline.

Over the brow and as you get to trees, turn off the road and into the woods. Dont take the footpath, but look slightly left and a mini-dh course has been cut through the woods. It’s only short, but you will come to a path that crosses it – go slightly left and down again. Watch for the 10ft near vertical drop – it’s rollable, so don’t bottle it.

Follow your nose at full pelt, and continue through the golf course until you hit a road. Turn left, then right to the old station – turn right through the station onto the disused railway. Follow this to it’s natural end after maybe a mile, down the ramp/steps and turn left up Coombes Rd farm track – keep left. Follow the farm track until you reach a T-junction and look for the footpath climbing to your left – take this.

Climb and go left at the top, then right up a biatch of a climb – follow the path through the woods and emerge to the right at the top of Carlton Pastures as mentioned earlier – you’ve just climbed a brill descent, but I don’t know how to work it the other way into this ride.

Descend over the fields to the gate at the bottom, through the gate and take the left hand track towards the hunting lodge. Turn left through the gate and down the 200yd doubletrack to another gate. Once through the gate turn right and you are facing Edensor where you started. This isn’t the end though – follow your nose downhill and go balls out – this is loads of fun and hit the dips and hollows as fast as you can. It’s only grass, but will make you grin a lot if you do it fast enough. Keep to the left of the small plantation and head for the road.

Turn right on the road, over the brow, over the cattle grid and over the hump backed bridge. At the 90 degree right hander, take the road to your left – after half a mile, this turns to gravel track – climb for another mile until you hit road. At the junction you will see a broken down wall on your right (unless the stile has been re-built). You are now at the top of Hellbank Plantation.

Follow the singletrack for 100yds and turn left, another 200yds and a sharp right. now follow your nose and pick your own route through the woods – there is a clean line, but I’ll be buggered if I can remember it from one time to the next. Go over the stream at the bottom, through a couple of gates and eventually you end up in Beeley. Once on the road, go right, then left. As you reach the main road, go straight across and follow the flat field back to the hum backed bridge.

I’m sure you can find your start point from here. If I can, I’ll highlight an OS map, scan it and put it up before Sunday. Enjoy.

Send me an email I can reply with a route of you want, (similar to that above) the descent back to bakewell through the golf course is fun

Cheers mate, the scan of an os amp would be brilliant too. Sounds like a good loop.