Guidelines for submitting routes

Submission guidelines

When you’re planning your walk it’s best to bear in mind

• When describing a route please include no. of stiles/gates/other access barriers
• Note if there are gradients and rate steepness, very steep (e.g. floodbanks), steep, moderate, no steep gradients
• Does the route cross any streams via bridges or ditches via ‘ditchboards’ (very narrow bridges usually with no handrail). Is the bridge suitable for a buggy or mobility scooter?
• Are there any benches?
• Path surfaces, is the path surfaced, mainly grass or mixed surfaces?
• Please note if there are parking facilities nearby
• Please note if there are bus stops nearby – we particularly welcome routes accessible from public transport
• Estimate the distance in miles or km
• Are there any refreshment stops along the route (pubs/cafes/farm shops etc)
• To help us identify your route you can mail in maps or attach a scanned map to the submission form.

Also, we can include walks that:

• Use rights of way or access land
• Follow permissive paths (paths that are not rights of way, but that the landowner is happy for people to use) Please note if they are permissive, and if they are subject to closure at any time (eg summertime, lambing season etc)
• Utilises toll paths, please note if they are toll paths and provide details of the toll
• Utilise ‘quiet lanes’.

But we can’t include walks that:

• Include private roads (that do not have public access)
• Cross private land where there is no right of way
• Include long stretches running along the roadside – maximum length at roadside 200 meters
• Include any stretches running along busy roads
• Cross busy roads where there are no pedestrian, cycle or horse crossings
• Cross dual carriageways (on the carriageway) where there are no over bridges.

Writing directions

The directions for your walk should be short and easy to follow. Take a look at other walks on the site for a guide.

We will need details of the start point (and end point if the walk is linear), grid references would be useful. You can find a grid reference online at www.getamap.co.uk

If you can, give each major change in direction, a new numbered paragraph, and mark the corresponding number on the map (if you’re attaching a map). Also, please make a note of each stile, gate, bridge, bench or cut through you come across – we need this information to help people with mobility problems decide if they can tackle a route.

Taking photos

If you have a digital camera photos of any stile, gates, bridges or benches you come across would be really useful. As would photos along the route at key points, such as when making major changes in direction or places that might be a bit difficult for someone new to the walk to navigate. Please number them to correspond with your text and or map – so we can easily identify what and where each picture relates to. You can e-mail them to countrysideaccess@nottscc.gov.uk or upload a ‘zip file’ of the photos to the website.

What will happen next?

Once we receive your walk we’ll check through it to make sure it meets the above guidelines. We then need to get our team to check it on the ground, and make sure any road crossings are safe to promote to the public. We will create a map showing the route, and will make a pdf that people can download that contains photos of the route, and the map.

If routes are unsafe, or use paths that we can’t promote for any reason we might not be able to put them on the forum. But we will let you know if that’s the case.

By submitting routes you agree to the terms and conditions of the forum [new window]

Most of all, thanks for submitting your route!