Buy the OS Route Map and instructions for this route

It would be easy to call this ride a Dales classic, except that strictly speaking, Nidderdale falls outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and is instead an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Either way, this loop, which starts in the small town of Pateley Bridge, and clambers slowly up onto the moors at the head of the majestic dale, is certainly a classic; with some excellent riding as well as some totally breathtaking scenery.
The opening leg is a long, drawn-out affair, with a climb of over 300m onto the windswept summit of In Moor. The effort is rewarded with a fine but rough descent to the Scar House Reservoir — they don’t come much better than this — where the second and more scenic leg begins. It’s an easy climb up onto the appropriately named Dales Edge — a sweeping veranda, traced by a broad marble-littered track. But any hope of getting into a rhythm is destroyed by two short and very sharp drops along the way — both needing maximum concentration as well as perfectly set-up suspension to clean.
The stony stuff continues after the road crossing, and then it’s a final plummet, in places as rough as anything already encountered, back to the floor of the Dale, where good tracks lead effortlessly back into Pateley Bridge.