Welcome to the Monkeyspoon.com guide to mountain biking tracks & trails in Peaks District, in particular covering North Derbyshire and the Hope Valley. Whether you’re into Downhill or Cross Country there’s nothing quite like mountain biking in the Peak District with it’s beautiful scenery and challenging and techincal natural tracks. In the North of the Peak District is the Dark Peak which features gritstone and peat, gritstone providing good grip in the wet and dry, whereas the South, or White Peak, features limestone which is quite smooth and very slippery in the wet.

This is a list of what we consider to be the best legal downhill tracks and paths in the Hope Valley area, they are all either Bridleways or “Other Public Access Routes”, eg roads you wouldn’t drive your car on.

Currently there are no officially organised or purpose built public Downhill Courses in the Peak District, the nearest location for this is Wharncliffe, just north of Sheffield. The Forestry Commission has made the tracks built in the woods legal. Information can be found at www.wharncliffe.info and this page has info on the No Human course.

Track	Rating: Technical/Speed/Fun	Head Cam	Map Link
Aston – Near Hope	/ /		SK 179 852
Bamford Clough – Near Bamford	/ /		SK 211 837
Brinks Road – Near Hope aka The Roman Road	/ /		SK 169 858
Cave Dale – Near Castleton	/ /		SK 148 824
Chapel Gate – Near Edale & Rushup Edge	/ /	#	SK 105 837
Derwent Edge – Near Ladybower	/ /		SK 195 880
Gores DH – Near Derwent & Fairholmes	/ /		SK 166 904
HaggTor – Near Ladybower & Derwent aka Hagg Farm	/ /		SK 163 889
HopeX DH – Near Ladybower & Hope aka The Beast of Hope Cross	/ /	#	SK 162 880
Hurst Clough – Near Bamford	/ /		SK 218 830
Jacob’s Ladder – Near Edale & Hayfield	/ /	#	SK 087 862
Pin Dale – Near Hope & Castleton	/ /		SK 158 823
Stanage Plantation – Near Hathersage	/ /	#	SK 240 840

On each page you can leave comments about the track; changes, conditions or anything relevant.

The Web Team has been hard at work to produce an interactive Peak District Tracks Map, showing all the Track Pages’ locations and details on an Ordnance Survey® map. It also shows other location useful to mountain bikers visiting the Peak District. View Version 2 of our Tracks Map for the latest features and a larger view or use the original below (requires IE7 or higher or Firefox). Click on the markers on to display information for each Track or Service.

There is also a Google Earth map file showing the locations of mountain biking tracks in the Peak District in the Google Earth Tracks sub page.

Some statistics on legal riding in the Peak District

Bridleways account for only 12% of paths (footpaths & bridleways) in the Peak District, so for every 7.3 kilometres of footpath there is only 1 kilometre of bridleway.* 36%, 524 kilometres square, of the Peak District is open access land (normally only allowing access by foot).**
^{(Statistics calculated from a 2008 Peak Park document: *2001 **2005)}

Local Maps

It’s strongly recommend you carry a decent map when you’re out riding in the Peak District. The Ordnance Survey Explorer maps have great detail and clearly show rights of way and elevation. There are two Explorer maps covering the Peak District; Dark Peak area (OL1), including the Hope Valley and north, and White Peak area, covering south of the Hope Valley. You can buy waterproofed OS maps online from local business Aqua3 and they also offer maps centred on a location of your choice.
Monkeyspoon in conjunction with Aqua 3 and can offer a 10% Discount to all Monkeyspoon users. To take advantage of this great offer simply use the box below to search when you buy a map from them online.

_{Please note: These pages are intended to be a guide to local tracks, they have been created to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing. You are responsible for yourself and so follow any suggestions given in these pages at your own risk.}