East Radnorshire has the highest concentration of bridleways and green lanes in Britain. The area has long been a mecca for mountain bikers and off road events such as Polaris, and now they’ve got their own website to make it more accessible.

The idea behind the site is made clear in its introductory paragraph: “Many years ago one of us went on holiday with our girlfriend. We took our mountain bikes and OS maps and intended to explore the mountains. Everywhere we chose turned out to be unrideable… There must have been some decent routes but we never found them and we didn’t go back. This guide is intended to save you from the same experience.”

Roughrides.co.uk has been developed by Jeremy Atkinson, probably the most focused mountain bike access campaigner we’ve ever met, and – very handily – also involved with Rights of Way administration in the East Radnorshire and Powys area.

He’s used this insider knowledge and an astonishing amount of determination to firstly unearth a truly astonishing amount of ‘hidden’ rights of way and then link them into excellent rides – all starting and finishing at a pub! Once the routes and access agreements were in place he’s now set up the Rough Rides website with money from government funds such as the Advantage West Midlands, Herefordshire County Council and the European Rural Development Agency.

The site is based around 4 main routes all setting off from or near Kington on the English Border. As well as detailed descriptions of every aspect of these downloadable routes there’s additional information allowing you to create your own circuits too. As Jeremy says “We have worked on the principle of giving you loads of information. We don’t have the restriction of printing costs, so why not?”

As well as inspiring us to head west at the next available opportunity, the website project also shows just what you can achieve if you start looking more closely at the area you ride. Granted you’re not suddenly going to discover that you were right next to the Brecon Beacons all along but somehow hadn’t noticed, but chances are there’s a whole load of rights of way that aren’t marked anywhere except a map deep in your local council offices.

It’s taken 3 years of applying through different funding organisations and local government people to get Jeremy’s Rough Rides project to the showpiece stage it’s at now, and they’re still waiting for clearance of funds for waymarking. Finding a whole new selection of routes for you and your mates can be as little as a few hours work. All you need to start is access to the “definitive map” held by your council rights of way dept. Then you can start playing join the dots with council roads, green roads, RUPPs, BOATs and other legal rights of way that somehow missed out on being designated on Ordnance Survey maps. Getting in touch with local horse association groups and off road drivers can also yield a healthy crop of routes that they’ve researched.

So what are you waiting for, get yourself over to the Welsh Borders for some inspirational riding and then come back all fired up to root out some hidden routes in your back yard.