I’m heading up to Harrogate next weekend for a mate’s 40th and thought I’d take the Friday off work and fit in a ride around Nidderdale on the way.

I like the look of the Tour Of Nidderdale on the Nidderdale AONB site. On looking at the homeward leg (clockwise direction heading back S/SE across Lofthouse Moor, I can see three Bridleway descents that are not part of the loop:

One drops past Thwaite House.

One drops to Thrope Farm.

One drops through Thrope Plantation.

Just wondered of any of these are worth riding and if so, is there one of the others that people generally use as the climb back out? I would still plan to ride the rest of the route as per the guide.

Any help gratefully accepted!

The one that starts by the shooting hut (Thrope Farm) is worth doing. The one before is wide track, I think, the one after has no descent of note so is pretty pointless. I would probably go to Lofthouse and climb up the road to re-continue.

Thanks fella.

Yes, along the valley bottom to Lofthouse and up the road looks good.

I’m looking forward to it, been about 20 months since I’ve done any Dales riding and that was around Kettlewell, so expecting this to a good’un.

Cheers.

I’ve not done the middle of the three dropping to thwaite house, keep meaning to pick it up at some point but don’t fancy the ride along the bottom – the one occasion i tried to walk the river bank years ago put me off trying to get a bike along there to the Ford (the path was largely fallen into the river after the ford headed North).

shooting house is good if it’s fairly dry, ime when wet, it was largely unrideable bog and tussock grass until the gate, then just a wide grassy track.

Be warned, the slog back up trapping hill is pretty awful.

Was fairly dry up top today. Might still be a bit squishy on the shooting house descent, I opted for the ‘normal’ route along the top.