Cold Kirby to Bilsdale

Cold Kirby to Bilsdale

Route Information

Stats: 25 miles and 3377 feet of ascent

OS Map:

Refreshments

This route starts and finishes near to the National Parks Visitor Centre at Sutton Bank. The centre has a cafe and toilets. From 2013, it will also have bike hire.

Accommodation is at Thirsk, Helmsley or in one of the villages nearby, by way of numerous pubs and B&Bs.

Character

This is a burner, a real test of your stamina. As it starts, we follow the BW from Cold Kirby, before detouring off the BW and along the road via Old Byland, as the BW direct is a real mud bath (honest). We ride routes first, so that you know these things. However, once around the detour, the technical aspect begins with a great singletrack descent, before climbing up to Murton Grange, following the woods around to a further descent before a road section takes you off to the moorland proper.

Start Point: Park alongside the village green at Cold Kirby

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Route

Heading from Cold Kirby, the track can be muddy in winter, meaning that this is a better ride for summer and spring – or when the ground is hard. There’s a steep climb following an enjoyable technical descent into a hidden valley, and once back up onto moorland, you find a mix of double that singletrack that weaves you along to Old Byland.

From HIgh Lier Lane, take the BW that drops you steeply once more, this time towards Murton Wood – exiting on the lane towards Murton Grange.

Take the BW to the right just before Murton Grange – Ox Pasture Lane – and follow this to a junction of tracks above Hag Wood. Take the BW that skirts ‘Shaken Bridge Farm’, and exit onto the bridge of the same name.

Pick up the BW opposite and follow this to the road at Newgate Bank, then riding along the road for a short distance.

A Laskill Farm, take the minor lane to the left, which eventually leads into a great little permissive track leads across the moor and steeply down to Fangdale Beck, following which you have an epic climb, where walking is not optional!

The track then thins out into singletrack that requires good navigation, before twisting around and joining doubletrack for a long and fast descent off the moor. Take a tour around the BWs that surround Hawnby, climb back up to the escarpment and finish along Boltby Scar before heading to the car.

For 25 hard miles, and some great descents and little technical sections along the way, this is a cracker of a route.