Route Description

Natural England produce an excellent guide/leaflet/outline map on the Pennine Bridleway/Mary Towneley Loop. To view or download this leaflet click here

For full details of leg changeover points, parking, leg cut off times and route waymarking look under leg changeovers on this site.The route is easy to follow on the ground and we would advise would be teams to recce their legs ( a good club training exercise )The outline map of the route produced by the Countryside Agency can be obtained free of charge at local Tourist Offices ( or see above to download this leaflet) and we would reccomend the Harveys Map of the Pennine Bridleway South which includes the Mary Towneley Loop as a good option for teams to obtain. This map is easier to follow than the OS map and is easier to photocopy the individual legs.This map can be obtained easily online by going to the links page on this site.Any queries about the route please contact us.We have now produced written route descriptions of each leg,this is to hopefully assist teams to navigate their way around the route when out on a recce and should not be used as the main source of route finding on race day !

Written route description and maps. To download or open the (word) document outlining the legs click on the link below. Also to view or download the OS map of the leg click on the link.

Leg 1 written route description (click) Map Leg1 (click)

Leg 2 written route description (click) Map leg 2 (click)

Leg 3 written route description (click) Map leg 3 (click)

Leg 4 written route description (click) Map leg 4 (click)

Leg 5 wriitten route description (click) Map leg 5 (click)

Also find leg information and maps on the Racemaps site by clicking the link below .
Racemaps (click)

For interactive maps on the location of the changeovers and spectator points
Click here

For those of you with Smartphones the Mary Towneley Loop route and map can be downloaded onto your phone as an App from Viewranger. To visit the Viewranger website click here
( A paper map of the route must be carried on the day of the race)


The different types of waymarking signs to be found on the Mary Towneley Loop.

For further information on the Mary Towneley Loop including a route map click on the link below. ( Seen from a mountainbikers point of view.) Go to the site and click on MTB rides.
Mary Towneley Loop (click)