We're indebted to the nice people on the Guardian travel section
for bringing access.mod.uk
to our attention.
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Oi, this is a
bridleway...
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It's a web site where those friendly fellas in khaki have assembled a
selection of walks on the Ministry of Defence estate, some 600,000
acres of prime firing range and training areas spread across the
country.
Despite a splendidly bland Rich Tea type of exterior, the site has
a soft, useful inner which includes a selection of mainly short walks
in a handy downloadable PDF format.
And as you'll know if you've ever been on military land, the
ravages of artillery bombardment and mock company attacks mean that
there are no people or agriculture, roads or industry to screw with
nature, so the local wildlife is often rich and the landscape
beautifully preserved.
There are also general details of safety and access regulations,
some details of the estates and handy links to related access sites
along with a handy FAQ.
Hint, if you see red flags or lamps, then you really don't want to be
going for a walk unless you have a thing for live ammunition.
The 13 walks
are spread all over the UK with areas including Edinburgh,
Pembrokeshire, the Staffordshire Peak, Dartmoor, Northumberland and
Sailsbury Plain. There are also details of managed access areas,
where there is access on public rights of way and in managed access
areas.
Just watch out for those red flags ;-)
