Route Ref:  NYM23

Back to North Yorkshire Moors Routes

Park on the side of the track leading to the incline. Start the ride by following this hard packed gravel track south for two miles. Eventually you will reach the bottom of the incline. Trucks and engines used to be hauled up here by steam, but for us we have to rely on our own energy to reach the top. If you do this in one go then you're probably pretty fit!

After your breather at the top continue for about another one hundred yards where you will find a soft single track leading off to the right onto Urra Moor. This single track joins the main track, which is wide and is the start of the compacted sandstone.

Follow the track west over Urra Moor (Within yards of the trig point, the highest point on the North Yorkshire Moors. Within a half mile of passing the trig point the track bends to the right and another track leads off straight ahead. Follow this track straight ahead towards Seive Green. After a mile and a half, before dropping down the hill, turn off to the left onto another wide track head due south. This follows the edge of the moorl for two miles. At a point where the track makes a dog leg bend near the footpath to William Beck Farm another track turns off on the left due east. Take this track widened with compacted dolomite and follow it down a steep descent into Tripsdale. This spot as mentioned in Route NYM014 was once a quite unspoilt spot with stepping-stones over the stream. This motorway that has been plastered across its beauty, presumably to service the shooting butts over Tripsdale Moor, has now ruined it.

It's still worth a short stop at the stream before attempting the steep climb out of the eastern side of the valley. After the climb the dolomite fades away and the track returns to grass and mud mostly hard packed. Continue across Slape Wath Moor to the wide track junction at Stump Cross overlooking Bransdale.

Turn left at this junction onto another track heading due north back towards Urra Moor. Looking up this track it seems to go on forever into the distance. Head up this track towards Urra Moor but turn off right at the next junction and follow another track into the dip over Hodge Beck and then a short climb briefly onto Rudland Rigg and then on to Bloworth Crossing.

You have a choice at Bloworth of taking the descent back down the incline and back to the car or heading north towards Kildale. This route takes the hard gravelly track north, climbing slightly past Burton Howe and then a long two miles of fast gradual descent to the junction above Bank Foot. Take the left fork and follow the bending track becoming quite rocky in places back down to Bank Foot.

Start Bank Foot 592061 - Track Jnc 600034 - Incline Top 606025 - Track Jnc 608019 - Track Jnc 605015 - Trcak Jnc (Round Hill) 592015 - Track Jnc (Medd Cragg) 574010 - Track Jnc 579990 - Tripsdale Beck 582988 - Track Jnc (Stump Cross) 606982 - Track Jnc 607005 - High Bloworth (Beck) 615010 - Track Jnc 616012 - Bloworth Crossing 615014 - Track Jnc (Burton Howe) 607032 - Track Jnc 601049 - Bank Foot 592061

13.5 Miles, 21.73 Kms, 2100 Feet, 689 Metres, 1 Gates, 100% Off Road