Matt's Website

A black and white photo of a stony track heading over a bare hill with a single windswept tree.

Who are green lanes for?

Off-roaders have a legal right to drive on Byways Open to All Traffic. So ill-feeling towards them is a symptom of a wider problem.

Cycling with Grandpa

Cycling with Grandpa

Spinning along the smooth gravel of the Peak District rail trails, three generations found our flow.

The incident of the curious dog on the Thames Path

The incident of the curious dog on the Thames Path

A two-day family walk with an excitable pup. What could go wrong? We got our answer a couple of kilometres into the walk.

Finding peace in the Galloway Forest Park

Finding peace in the Galloway Forest Park

We left fears, anxieties, work and chores far behind for a week exploring the forest around Glentrool.

Trees and sky reflecting in a puddle on a rural track bordered by lush green undergrowth.

The landscape of private names

Pig Path. Blue Gate. Muddy Path. The prosaic names I gave to my childhood landscape embodied a world that no map could ever properly capture.

A group of children in red, white, blue and brown tops run down a farm track away from the camera.

It’s time to set kids free from cars

We’ve created a society where kids don't travel actively or independently, and it’s affecting their wellbeing.

A woman cycles through a forest pulling a bike trailer with a Golden Retriever puppy onboard.

The dog trailer days

We wanted to get our new puppy used to travelling by bike, so we hired a trailer. Spoiler alert: she loved it.

A small child, just visible, sleeps in a green tent against the green backdrop of Dartmoor.

The right to wild camp on Dartmoor: gone but not forgotten

The outcome last week of a wealthy landowner’s high court case was sadly predictable: he’s stripped people of their legal right to camp on Dartmoor.

Sheep graze on a hill covered by low cloud.

As I walked out one midwinter morning

One January morning I stepped out of my front door and didn’t return until the sun was setting and I’d walked 30km.

Edgelands: neither here nor there

Edgelands: neither here nor there

I’m no lover of cities, yet I'm drawn to edgelands – those transitional spaces that are neither urban nor rural.

White clouds in the Black Mountains

White clouds in the Black Mountains

We drove through thick fog for an hour before turning onto the mountain road. Was this it? Would the weather spoil our view?

Walking has become a radical act

Walking has become a radical act

Choose to walk and you're resisting pressure to conform and embracing a mode of transport that is free – in more ways than one.

A bike leans on a signpost pointing to the Ridgeway byway in either direction, another track to the right.

A week of Wiltshire byways

Our leisurely exploration of this ancient landscape took us from the stones of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to the concrete of the 1930s.

A bike leans on a National Cycle Network waymarker, a tree to one side and a loch in the background.

Big country for an old man

Racing the rain along the forest roads and quiet lanes of Galloway. (And hoping my family had saved me some biscuits.)

A child rides their bike on a winding trail through a pine forest, their green coat billowing behind them.

Glorious Glentrool gravel

Forest roads wound for miles across the hillsides – built for logging lorries but ideal for our needs. We'd found the perfect place for some family cycling.

A waterfall called Sgwd-yr-Eira, The Falling of the Snow, makes a white curtain as it plunges into a pool below.

Walking behind a waterfall

For a moment we are immersed in Sgwd-yr-Eira, the Falling of the Snow. The narrow path cocoons us between the waterfall and the rock.

A child cycles along a rough track in high country, grassy slopes on either side.

Elan Valley: the rough and the smooth

Not every family rough-stuff expedition we attempt goes smoothly but an October ride in the Elan Valley proved to be a hit, despite the conditions.

A ride through Dartmoor’s industrial past

A ride through Dartmoor’s industrial past

When a drive back from Cornwall took us past the start of the Granite Way in Okehampton, we stopped off for a ride with a unique perspective on Dartmoor.

A young boy in a blue t-shirt sits on a sandy beach, his yellow bike propped up in the sand behind him.

Swapping the car for the Camel

Our largely car-free week in Cornwall showed what’s possible when people have access to good cycling infrastructure.

A weekend in the forest

A weekend in the forest

Following a year in which Covid-19 had kept us close to home, a few days pedalling along tracks by the River Wye felt like a distant adventure.

A young boy in a blue t-shirt cycles away from the camera on a forest track.

Return to Mortimer Forest

It had been six months since we’d been to Mortimer Forest and it felt good to be back. Whenever we ride into the trees here we feel free.

A child in a blue t-shirt rides a bike away down a farm track.

Riding further (for fruit)

When the fruit farm’s website announced the ripening of the strawberries, we knew exactly where our family ride that Sunday would take us.

Between Lulworth and Kimmeridge, rocky cliffs – white with patches of green – jut out into a pale blue sea.

Walking the South West Coast Path

The adventure spanned 14 years, starting in Minehead when I was a teenager and finishing in Poole as I was about to become a parent.

The first footprints in the snow

The first footprints in the snow

Peering into the predawn gloom, we saw our street deep with snow. The hill beyond was obscured by cloud but we knew we’d soon be up there.

Behind a barbed wire fence, a sign amongst the trees reads: "Private land."

Land access rights in England are wrong

Around 92% of land in England is off-limits to the general public and where rights of way do exist, cyclists can only ride around 20% of them.