Hi Folks

Kinda new to all the landrover scene. I live in Midlothian which is the south east side of Edinburgh lying on the doorstep of the Lanenmuirs and the Granites etc.Im no expert offroad yet and i intend on learning slowly and correctly but the first problem im facing is where im allowed north of the border. There seems to be the same response when folk ask similar question being oohh its a tricky subjest laws all diffrent in Scotland. So more through frustration i would like to start to actually map were we can go with the help of the landowners if need be. Just by driving around my local countryside and stopping to chat to the farmers and gamekeepers i have been told of hundreds of miles of drovers roads that legally can be used by a 4x4 as they historically have always been a passage for vehicles be it horse or used to shift cattle from one feeding area to another or to market or slaughter-its only in the last 100 years oor horses sprouted 4 wheels and called themselves landrovers was a farmer in east lothain quoted that and i think its brilliant. Luckily one of my family used to work for Historic Scotland so i have accsess to very old maps if need be and those show you drovers roads spanning scotland in all directions. Now i know that the law is that if claimed to be a right of way it has to be proven that within the last 20years that its still been used by the public for variouse reasons but manily accsess from one village to another or one road to another that kind of thing. At the end of the day if there was dedicated accsess for us would we not then look into things like lottery grants or Eu help as it is sport and leisure which this goverment says we all must try increase. Id even pay a memebership fee to a club if one was started and this club would be the link to all landowners and if they asked a point were payment can be made for accsess. Im talking help the landowners realsie we dont wreck the countryside if we know what we are allowed to do. Just a thought what do you think ??? would be a huge mountian to climb but anything is better than the situation we have now.Thanks for reading.
Scott

good call on the thread boner..firstly thumbs up on what you say..pay respect to the landowners as it is there live we are treading on to so to say" ive been hearing alot of storys of late about walkers not paying this respect more so in shooting seasons and it ****es me right off.Most landowners/farmers are very willing to let you drove along.there is however a few"its not a perfect world" that will gladly tell you to turn back and head along where you came from.being an keepers hand i have bumped into a few ****s who try to give it.."but i have the right to be here etc etc" mostly walkers thou,,yea sonny but you are right in the middle of our shoot ffs.It pays to phone up or even pay a vist before hand before you go anywhere and ask what activitys are on that day or week,but we realy do need to try and get more done about this there is alot of tracks that chould be used for our plesure and some kind of fund/membership whould maybe be the way to go about it.Things like track maintanince etc, days or nights where we have a few folk helping out to fix areas that have been used alot and in need of repair.i stumblled upon this chap a while ago ....BBC - Action Network - network of vehicle rights of way in Scotland and hes is doing exactly what you say..hes fighting for our right to enjoy these tracks.and again being a chap that has lived/worked and played on this type of land all his life he knows the score. any help i can give i will and id like to talk more about starting up a "mid/east lothian offroad club".in the mean time i hope this gets some good replys and if anything sign up to the bbc site and suport this chap in the above url:.

beers flowing

mystic

Ever thought aboot joinin' the SGA? Offer yer services as a beater etc and get paid for drivin' off road ( between drives that is ) Also a good way of meetin' other keepers etc on different estates that might help ye on yer quest

I have thought about joinin the SGA , it whould be good to meet up with other beaters/keepers and offer our services for beating etc, i do alot of voluntary work just know for the chap i work with but it whould be good to expand on that and meet others. and get to go off roading at the same time lol.

mystic

HI

Cheers for the replys.

I think it would be worth so in my spare time ill try make a start. There are a few old roads i ahve already found on old maps that are not even on todays versions. Good size to them aswell linking most of the borders up via the moors. Ill maybe start a thread to show how im getting on.

Mystic u should start a club. id join up.

Scott

would be very very interested in how you get on boner. im in the early stages of planning a 2week expo. across scotland for the early part of next year. i would love to know where i could drive, where landowners would be happy for me to tread. planning on wildcamping as much as we can and also as much "laning" as we can to. do you operate memory map? as this would prob help you "map" the routes possible.

G

dunno if ye've seen this website before, it might be off use to ye
Old-Maps - the online repository of historic maps - home page

Thanks for the link Busterbus ill keep that in my faveroutes. The maps i can go see are in historic scotlands headquaters in edinburgh so not exactly easy to just open a page whenever i fancy a browse but i cant complain its a good read when i do manage to pop in.

Griffdowg send your email neaer the time. if you contact me i could arrange some time off and maybe meet up and tag along for a day. From what i know so far the borders and all the way to say edinburgh and glasgow are the best anyhting further north is huge estates and their normally hunting working estates and the owners dont care for anyone on their land. Saying that no harm in asking. The borders has always been the farm land and thats were most of the old drovers roads are.

Also i went and visited another freind of the family and he lives in some lovely countryside with lanes all around. His old man is a gamekeeper/gillie and said if we turn up in the landy sometime soon i can go along with my dogs to a shoot so they get experience and also then i will be shows the routes as they use them all the time. He said alot have been illegaly blocked off but in those cases take a picture and call the police- comes under some blah blah section dont know what legislation meaning the police have the power to then take the landowners to court for blocking a public right of way.

The more i read into it all the more things im finding out. To be honest we have been royaly shafted in Scotland so much illegal land blocking is going on its unreal, rights of way are not the only landforms we can use if rated for vehicles but thast somehting ill look into later.

First port of call is im trying to get a hold of a good clear map with all the routes printed so that i can then go oot walk them and see what kind of satte their in and what rating they have. It be an old map circa 1950 as most the drovers roads would have still been used for what they were made for back then.

First route a very simple route called Fala Moor, its just a flat drovers road going from the A68 to the A7 in midlothain. Roguhly 5.1/2miles starting gravel then onto moorland double tracks and slightly rasied middle in places so although not rough i usually slow right down its also working farmland and the farmer seems ok with us going over. I made a point of asking him. Ill get the camera next walk up there and get some good photos taken. To find this route is easy and when i figure it out ill post a link to some mapsite. When i do a route ill doa reply dedicated to it so its not got my blethering all over it just directions a description and photos, is that ok?

Anyhoo time for a beer. Cheers folks

Scott

Good work boner i had read somehwre else about most of the roads being blocked off but fair dues to them for doing it ,it is mostly because of the travelers and DUMB DUMPERS ive seen the mess first hand that these ****s leave behind and the farmers get no help to clear the mess up its left down to them to do it "as if thay are not busy enuff as it is" there was a problem on the estate over the road from me with travelers/dumpers and in the end the gates had to be locked up etc to stop the wee F**KERS ", it was worth it thou cause all thay done was leave a bloody mess behind them and ruin the place" thats something that you cant realy get rid of thay will allways be around,maybe locked gates with padlocks etc chould over come that with a membership scheme the members pay for the gates etc and have keys for them all "in saying that thay whould have to be fairly strong padlocks etc as these
f**kers use bolt cutters or anything thay can to get into places thats useally why you see large sections of trees laid across the path,its something to think about thou and whould involve talking with the farmers etc ill mention it to some of the chaps i talk to for you.

Yea the falla moor road is not to bad ,a good wee run great views arcoss edinburgh and the forth ,its a pitty we missed the opening the first time we went to go find it.even if i did have a map lol its a very easy run that a std landy can cope with on road tyres no probs in fact you will find all the drovers roads can be done on std road or AT tyres.
What you will unfortunately come across in your quest will be the EAST LOTHIAN COUNCILS plans to close off most of these roads to vehicles ,something i read about not to long ago , maybe some kind of action group is also needed here to voice or views across?like what that chap is doing in that link i posted he seems to have got some good response for his actions but it will inviolve alot of legal stuff and your time.
What we also need here is a 4x4 play site something ive been dithering about for a while and also a good way for the farmer/farmers to make some extra income etc as you know and have seen while we are out there are a few places that whould be ideal for this im still toying with the keeper about this where i work of course its not up to him he can only forward my idea to the laird, but we will see how things progress and take it from there. in the mean time keep up the gid work m8 and get them maps out

Oi griffdowg like boner said whould be good to hay a wee meet up for a few days when you come up even better if we chould get some more folk out too.must discuss this nearer the time.

take it easy all and am off to make some bacon buttys lol


mystic

thats a couple o photos from when we headed up the first time boner the pano shot is from the bottom half before you head onto the moors.i kinda deleted the rest by misstake **** lol

Awight mystic

Some usefull info there. Kinda do feel sorry for farmers they have got it tough but end of the day its their trade so its what they make of it and they do get alot of money from the EU. I see these flytippers mess all the time aswell its a fecking disgrace and you can always point the finger at builders and cowboy garden companys. The farm up the road gets regualry hit but he is clever and now has buried 2ft spikes into the entrance area and only a tractor can drive oer safly. Last time he was hit with 9.5tonnes of slabs. He just picked em up and dumped em onto the main road. And so he should if the local authorities or the council wont help.

If East lothian council do get their way its gona be a bad day they are effectivly closing down the countryside. These lanes and tracks are there for exactly that reason only since suit monkeys have started to take their kids for countryside walks and a few got killed have they went o **** we will get sued and turned em into walkways. Yet again health and safty is now really starting to take hold of evrything. Its just like trees in Edinburgh city centre they would rather cut them down than risk some claim that might arrise from a branch falling etc. its f*&king pathetic and to be honest i sometimes think whats the point anymore. All the same ill give it a damn good try. I have the contacts and enough proof of legilation that overules all this crap to the point they would have to reverse their illegal blocking very quickly. And if that was to fail then i would admit defeat and say fcuk Scotland and drive south of the border for my laneing.

See what happens im booked solid at work for next few months then i have to take time off as my hands are now fooked thats when i want to load the landy up and go on a tour and see if i can start to turn things around with the help of evryone else that feels the same way.

Boner

Thay dont actully get as much help as you are lead to beleave ,my point being that it takes them time to clear the mess up and that time is there time for working.just like if someone was to dump a load of stuff on your driveway before you went out to work,,only way you get out to work was to move the rubbish thus takeing up your work time that you should be out working therefor its costing you money..just the same for these chaps ,but my other point was to actully work with them setting up gates/ditches etc like you say we are out to help them not make there lives worse.i had a chat with the farmer along the road from me im good friends with him and do the odd job for him now and then and some pest control and he says the best thing is to talk to them put forward your ideas etc,you will find most will be very helpfull.i think a membership scheme whould be the best way to combat this with repair days etc etc and not to actully fight them on it with there backing and help you chould actully p**s all over the council and stop things progressing .ill hopefully be away this weekend myself and then hopefully going up north to the Rothievale estate for 2 weeks to do some grouse beating so i wont be on the tinternet for a while ....ill try see ya before i go thou dude .

take it easy

mystic

Awight man

Oi i know they have it tough i do respect their lifestyle but just wish they realised by being difficult their just sending us other directions at times. You know yourself its normally the new money type .

In the long term im determined to help the actuall rights of way thing get these saved and reopened if need be other than that ill approach some estates and just ask if i can personaly gain accsess if i paid a curtesy fee mainly to train the dogs.

Got me new tyres today so can now go on decent trails just gota find yin.

Gota pop up see you anyways man doing my books grrr hate paperwork lol.

Hope ya got the landy fixed.

take it easy man.

Boner said:

Awight man

Oi i know they have it tough i do respect their lifestyle but just wish they realised by being difficult their just sending us other directions at times. You know yourself its normally the new money type .

In the long term im determined to help the actuall rights of way thing get these saved and reopened if need be other than that ill approach some estates and just ask if i can personaly gain accsess if i paid a curtesy fee mainly to train the dogs.

Got me new tyres today so can now go on decent trails just gota find yin.

Gota pop up see you anyways man doing my books grrr hate paperwork lol.

Hope ya got the landy fixed.

take it easy man.

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Hi there Boner did u make a map up. Just I'm new to the landy scene my self and stay in Midlothian my self. And want to start doing green laning myself. Any help would be much appreciated thank you

Jaime Hughes said:

Hi there Boner did u make a map up. Just I'm new to the landy scene my self and stay in Midlothian my self. And want to start doing green laning myself. Any help would be much appreciated thank you

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Pal if you click on his name you'll see he hasn't been on here since 2011

Marmaduke said:

Pal if you click on his name you'll see he hasn't been on here since 2011

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Cheers m8 never noticed