Danby 7 (Start Anywhere)

This is a forest trail of about 7 miles mapped route, making a circuit around Danby Lodge, and passing the outskirts of Yorkley village, but there is scope to cut it down quite significantly by the careful choice of short cuts between controls. The objective, as with most of our trail races, is to visit the controls as fast as possible, not to follow the red line on the map slavishly. It is only there to help you if you are less confident as a map reader, when used in conjunction with the optional runner location facility. Note that as a Start Anywhere course, you don't have to start at the designated start....you can start at any control, but must then visit the controls in order, taking in the designated start/finish en route as just another control, and finishing where you started.

The going on the paths can be quite wet and muddy, but you don't have to keep to the paths - direct through the wood is sometimes the best option. Runnability through the woods is shown by colour: white is good runnable forest; the darker the green, the harder it is to get through, and a screen of thin green lines indicates undergrowth which will slow you down. The heavier the screen the thicker the undergrowth.

Parking is fairly limited near the Start and Finish of the course. You can park in the entrance to the forest track by the Finish, but don't block the entrance. Or you can park over the road by Blackpool Bridge. Then a little further away, towards Blakeney, is Wenchford picnic area, but you will need to Pay and Display there. There are several postcode areas that meet at Blackpool bridge, so the post code for the parking spot is unreliable, but if travelling from the direction of the A48/Blakeney and the Severn, follow signs just outside Blakeney for Go Ape, and then look out for the Soudley turn and Blackpool Bridge after you pass the picnic area. Aproaching from Parkend and the West/North West, go past Go Ape and Mallards Pike, and after about a mile the parking is opposite the Soudley turning and Blackpool bridge.

Start and Finish are about 55m from the forest gate on the track opposite the turn to Soudley, and Blackpool Bridge. Go through the gate and walk up the track for about 50m, ignoring the first significant track which goes off to the right up the hill, right by the gate. After about 55m there is a small track off to the right, and the start?finish is where this joins the main forest track. You need to trun right off the main track at this point to head towards control 1. The Finish is in the same place on the main forest track.

Note, however, that is a Start Anywhere course, so you can starteither here at the designated start, or at any other control, provided you are running with maprunF v 4.8.8 pr later. In this event you follow the control sequence as before, but the designated Start/Finish becomes just another control, and you finish at the control from which you started.

Please note also that the start and finish on the printable map in the link below are slightly different from those described here, as the printed map was used for the the Beat the Trail event staged over this course. You can download and print this map to run with, but check your phone map for the actual start/Finish location.