In reply to ffati:
As above, for trail (rather than fell), you can start in North Leeds and go as far as you want.
I used to do a loop that comprised about 25 miles of running almost entirely on trails. Could be picked up virtually from the centre, or from lots of spots in North Leeds.
- Roundhay Park (loop round back of lakes, cross ring road and follow footpath trail to)
- Shadwell (then follow two straight bridleways due north to)
- Wike (then follow the BW through the golf centre to Harrogate Rd, then on road for a few hundred metres north)
- Harewood estate (follow bridlepath through estate, turn left up through 'Emmerdale' and follow continuous BW to exit at Mt Pleasant Farm, and then a quick blast following Eccup Moor Road then left along King Lane)
- Headingley Golf Course where you turn right off the road and join the Meanwood Valley Trail, which then crosses a stile on the LHS to
- Alwoodley Cricket Club and Adel Beck, then going under the
- Ring Road at Meanwood, exiting the trail onto Parkside Road where you join the trail through
- Meanwood Grove, leading into Meanwood Park, exiting to
- Meanwood
From there, you've got some roadwork to do - you can hoof it back to the start point (about 3.5 miles - suburban, not too onerous), or get into the centre in a couple of miles. There are other rail and bus connections nearer to Meandwood as well as loads of cafes/shops if you need supplies and/or a lie down.
At its outer edges, you could exit this loop to innumerable bridleways that get you further toward the Dales.
All of this is a bit fiddly, but with an OS map and a bit of directional sense it's fine. It seems unlikely, but the quality of the running is consistently excellent, and on a summer's day its a really beautiful run.
For proper fell running it's well worth getting out to Horton, Malham or other Dales destinations, but they are a bit of a slog from Leeds if you just want a quick hit.
Mark
Post edited at 18:47
