Well the pictures above don’t correlate with my experience yesterday but that was perhaps after some rain, yesterday things were a lot drier than that and I had a fantastic ride. I did a big loop, parked at the bottom of ladybower and went over Cutgate to Langsett, up a few miles of Tarmac to turn into Dukes Rd at the top.
In my opinion Abbey Brook isn’t worth cycling. The turn off is very indistinct and is just before the rocks pictured above, I turned on the top of the rise but was soon able to see the path. The first part of the path you are clinging to a very narrow strip of path with a very sharp and steep drop off to your right, not very suitable for mtbing.
Then it gets a wee bit better.
After rounding and crossing a second brook the path opens out considerably and turns into a standard nearly double track with rocks and descends back down to the res. The sun was shining and taken as a whole ride I had a great time, I love exploring desolate spots but I won’t ever cycle Abbey Brook again. Last time I did this loop I did ride to back tor, Derwent Edge and that is a whole load of slabs and doesn’t provide much excitement either.