UK Bridleway Finder
There are null public bridleways in England and Wales, which add up to a total of null miles.
Public bridleways are a paths over which the public has a right of way on foot and a right of way on horseback or leading a horse, with or without a right to drive animals along the way.
Public bridleways are often waymarked using a blue arrow on a white disc or by blue paint dots on posts and trees.
Although Section 30 of the Countryside Act 1968 permits the riding of bicycles on public bridleways, the act says that it "shall not create any obligation to facilitate the use of the bridleway by cyclists".
There are null restricted byways in England and Wales, which add up to a total of null miles.
Restricted Byways are paths and highways which the public has a right of way on foot and a right of way on horseback or leading a horse, by non–mechanically propelled vehicles (e.g. bicycles, horse–drawn carriages) except in certain circumstances.
Restricted byways are often waymarked using a purple arrow on a white disc or by blue paint dots on posts and trees.
There are null byways open to all traffic in England and Wales, which add up to a total of null miles.
Byways open to all traffic (also known as BOATs) are highways that the public have right of way for vehicular and all other kinds of traffic.
Byways open to all traffic are sometimes waymarked using a red arrow on a white disc or by red paint dots on posts and trees.
There are null public footpaths in England and Wales, which add up to a total of null miles.
Public footpaths are paths on which the public have the right of way to travel on foot.
Public footpaths are often waymarked using a yellow arrow on a white disc or by yellow paint dots on posts and trees.
The right of access on a public footpath normally only extends to walking (although there may be other unrecorded rights), so there is usually no right to cycle or a ride horse on a public footpath. However, unless there is a traffic order or bylaw in place specifically, it is not a criminal offence to ride a horse or bicycle on a public footpath. It is a civil wrong to ride a horse or cycle on a footpath and it could be considered annoying by other users, and action could be taken by the landowner for tresspass or nuisance.
Horse riders have right of way on public bridleways, restricted byways, and byways open to all traffic. This means there are null rights of way which add up to a total of null miles suitable for hacking and riding horses in England and Wales.
You can see a breakdown of statstics per county by selecting a county from the Counties page.
Public right of way data for this website is derived from data kindly provided by rowmaps, however some local authorities do not provide definitive map data in a digital form. In this case fallback data is derived from OpenStreetMap data and listed as "other" data on the map, with dashed lines instead of solid lines.
There is missing data for the following authorities:
If you have, or know the location of, any of the missing datasets please email us at admin@bridleways.uk so that we can fill in the gaps.