are there any good ones that join up with minimal road?

cheers 😀

It is possible but not desirable IMHO

You can ride over to peel tower and then up to Crag Quarry and then over- it must be about 20-25 ish miles*- pretty much can all be done off road – one very short section of dead end road round Strawberry Duck. Might be a teeny bit of road after peel as i have only ridden to crag from there once and I forget the route we took

* not sure as the three towers – peel rvvy and daren is over 40 miles and I do it as a round trip and never done a straight route to peel

Route DOwn san marino – through Belmont that back road up by the farm to darwen tower
Take the witton weavers path up and over Turton moor right on road and right into woods by Turton ressie to STrawberry Duck road right and straight up all the way to get to Peel tower along the path from Peel tower to those woods whose name escapes me down them and then find a route up to CRagg from there – I dont know that area well enough to help

Not very interesting either and tbh I would do it on a cross bike and avoid those woods.

Strawbury Duck (occasional barman of said establishment 1990-1993)

Buckden Woods?

Do you mean Buckden Woods? It’s a good ride down there.

From the bottom of Buckden go along the old railway line through Irwell Vale and across the line at the station there and up across the by pass and right through Edenfield and up Gincroft Lane towards the turbines.
Then you’re on the edge of Cragg Quarry and on to Lee.
Got it. 😀

there was some talk of linking white coppice with a route over that way. Not sure if it ever happened

all sounding promising, any track logs? strava maps? or anything of the like, Cheers

the problem with this is there is nothing direct – you have to go via Darwen which means doing monster miles

one you get to Rammy its easy. Up Bamford Road, Coal Road, Turbines roads (even though they are called roads they are all good technical off road tracks with no cars in sight) from turbine 19 cross over a section known as “bog wars” then down a short singletrack descent which brings you right into Cragg. Its just a short trip across Rooley Moor road to get to the “rock jumps” descent which leads to the top end of Lee.

Riding from Winter Hill to Lee via Darwen off road and back is probably going to be a ride bigger than the Mary Townley Loop. Plus I don’t think the trail between Darwen and Rammy is that interesting? Never done it but I’ve not heard many good things about it. All the other sections are great though.

I always drive to Rammy or Birtle and do a loop to Lee and back.

When we are saying Darwin we are meaning from Belmont past the reservoirs around Edgeworth?
Then on over Holcombe. That’s a fairly direct route over to Cragg and Lee is it not?
Pretty much as the crow flies, having a bit of fun on the way. 🙂

grannyjone – Member

the problem with this is there is nothing direct – you have to go via Darwen which means doing monster miles.

neither of these things are a problem, im just looking for an interesting offroad route to aim for 🙂

You don’t have to go via Darwen though? Can you not just go San Marino, Turton, Entwistle, up to tower via firing ranges, buckden woods, Irwell vale, coal road and then your at Cragg?

Something like this?

thanks Phil, how much of that would you Guesstimate is road??? cheers

More than mine as I had less than a mile and you did say all minimal road 👿

about 3-5 ish to rammy ? You can reduce this by
1) going straight across at the bottom of San marino on that road – Never done it t though
2) IMHO best to avoid going to Turton to reduce mileage and road distance and head to Strawberryduck.

Do you mean Buckden Woods

Yes I did Cracking descent that- only done it once though.

I rode Bucky Woods last week for the first time since last year. It was… erm…. ‘interesting’. All the floodwater coming down off the hills in the winter means the bottom of the first section is pretty much unrideable. Everything between the roots has been washed away. The bottom section is still brilliant though.

Your alternative is Robin Hoods Well then all the way down into Irwell Vale

Did I read about a footbridge over the Irwell getting washed away on Boxing Day? Does that affect these routes?

I read about a footbridge over the Irwell getting washed away on Boxing Day? Does that affect these routes?

Nah.

Avoid anything to do with the River Irwell, it has been destroyed by last Winter.

I’ve done Buckden Woods you have to be good at roots and there are several gates to lift over be warned