Route Guide: Commondale and Gisborough Moors.
Distance: 16 Miles - 12 miles on-road, 4 miles off-road.
Difficulty: Easy.
Time: About 2 and a half to 3 hours.

From Commondale, head east out of the village towards Three Howes Rigg. When you arrive at the 
T-junction turn left and start the climb up Brown Hill. Just after the top of the hill the road 
swings right, due north. Here you leave the road and follow the Quaker's Causeway north-west 
across High Moor. This is an old paved track and you will soon reach the part on which all the 
flagstones are exposed. You are able to ride alongside the flagstones for much of the way - be 
careful not to scrape metal pedals on the stones if climbing onto the stones over certain 
sections, as sandstone will easily be marked & damaged. At the first junction in the track, 
take the right hand fork towards Woodland Gill Head. You now descend, crossing a few small 
becks which feed the reservoir on your right. On reaching Woodhill Gill Head take the left-hand 
fork to descend along the eastern side of Woodhill Gill towards the main road at Aysdale Gate.
A couple of notes of caution: when we did the ride there were horses in the fields above the 
farm, so go slowly so as not to spook them; and when you reach the concreted track immediately 
before the main road do not hang about near the farmhouse garden wall as there were a couple 
of very interested, very large hounds that could not get over the wall, but left you in no doubt 
what would happen if they could! Fortunately the farm garden is immediately next to the main 
road on a big downhill section so you can make it off at high speed if you are nervous about 
dogs. Be careful about joining the road as cars travel downhill at a fair speed.
Turn left onto the A171 and follow it over 2 miles right into Guisborough itself. You should 
pause for a while at the Priory. Here you will find a pub, sandwich shop and a very good MTB 
shop tucked into a corner of the Priory car park. To reach these, turn right at the first set 
of lights you reach in Guisborough, and then the next right - the Priory carpark is a hundreds 
yards of so around the bend on your right.
Continuing on from here - go back to the traffic lights you first reached, turn right along 
the road past the car and coach parks until reaching a T-junction where you turn left. Follow 
the road along until it turns sharp right towards the A173, and you continue straight on 
towards Hutton Village.
As the road swings round to the left you enter the parkland approach to the village. Just 
before the first houses you will see a bridleway on the right which climbs into the woods 
behind the gardens of the houses. Follow the bridleway upwards into Blue Lake Wood and Hutton 
Wood. Continue in a straight line all the way uphill to the top of the woods where you emerge 
onto Hutton Moor. The track is very easy to follow as it is very broad and has obviously been 
used by four wheel drive vehicles and motorcycles. You will almost certainly end up walking 
the steeper sections - the only problem with this being the midges and flies to be found in 
the warmer months in the woodlands.
Riding out of the woods you will find an easy track heading south-east across Hutton Moor. 
Follow this over a short initial climb and then relax on the descent to join the metalled 
road along Percy Cross Rigg. This road takes you past Lonsdale Plantation on your right and 
then climbs over Brown Hill. After about 1.5 miles you pass Percy Rigg Farm on your left. 
Soon after the farm you reach the crosscroads. Turn left here and drop down the steep hill 
to the cattle grid. Take a deep breath and pedal up the hard climb on the other side. This 
soon levels out and you can rest your muscles on the easy descent back down into Commondale 
and the start point.

This route was downloaded from:
Mountain Bike Extreme - http://www.mtbe.co.uk