Walking and Climbing

Just a quick question on 1:25k OS maps. They tend to over pronounce some footpaths with this green dotted line on the map, on venturing out I often find these marked footpaths are not clear footpaths on the ground. Other footpath markings used on this scale map like the faint dotted black line normally have well defined paths on the ground. Should the map markings be the other way round? Can anyone shed some light on this? An example can be found at NY265087 (Lake District OL6) where these paths cross the Cumbria Way.

Green are rights of way but that doesn't mean there is a clear path.

Black is a path, but that doesn't mean it is a right of way.

Also watch out for those black parish boundaries that look like paths!

Theres a right of way goes straight over the top of Dove Crag in the Lakes, this is deffinatly not a footpath, or even a scramble, you could absail it if you had a very long rope.

How it developed as a ROW is beyond me.

Just did some investigation! Yea the green are foot paths which show public rights of way and these are liable to change and may no be clearly defined on the ground.
So why did OS choose to highlight these better than a normal path?

Because you have a LEGAL RIGHT OF WAY.

As Woodie told you. The others are permissive paths at best.

I presume that the OS are reluctant to emphasise non-right of way paths too much, and hence get blamed for an influx of trespassers who don’t know or care that just because a path is marked on a map it doesn’t give them the right to walk there. Black dotted paths may be within stately home grounds; they may be stalkers paths in private deer forests, or they may even be paths which have been made by animals. They’re not marked clearly because they are (in theory at least) of no use to the average walker.

Having said that, I do agree that it’s irritating that they’re not better marked on land with legal, permissive or de facto access, and it’s a bit of a shame that the OS didn’t use the CroW act as an opportunity to mark the unofficial paths better, on access land at least.

Oh and rights of way which follow clearly defined paths are often marked as a dotted green line over a dotted black one. You have to look pretty hard to spot the black one though.

If you use the harvey maps they differentiate between ROW with a clear path on the ground and those without. Handy in that it let's you know what to expect.

If you use the harvey maps they differentiate between ROW with a clear path on the ground and those without. Handy in that it let's you know what to expect.

I think the green/black thing probably relates to the logic of the colour theme of the map, i.e. Black being used for labels and physical features. In the purely rural sections the colours build up to show a variety of properies on top of one another.

Orange showing contours
Blue showing water/Green showing woodland.
Black showing physical features
Green showing rights of way

If you want rights of way to be black then if you have a bridleway running down a fenced private road it would look almost identical to a trainline, unless you want the walls blue?

As Dave says, use Harveys maps - so much clearer than 1:25,000 OS maps as they are primarily aimed at walkers.