Leisure

As one of Yorkshire's biggest landowners, we take care of 72,000 acres of stunning countryside and invite you to come and explore it.

Whether you fancy a gentle stroll around a reservoir, a bike ride with the family, a bit of pony trekking or an afternoon's fishing or sailing, there's plenty to choose from.

Opening up our land for you is part of our Blueprint for Yorkshire, our plan to take even better care of our little part of the world.

See the information below to select your activity - from downloading walking and cycling routes to finding the region's best sailing spots.

Cycling Routes

What better way to enjoy our picturesque land than riding round it on your bike, we've now opened up even more of our land for you to enjoy via our cycle paths.

Over the past few years cycling has become very popular within the UK and even more so in Yorkshire after we held the grand depart of the Tour de France. It saw thousands of people not only visit Yorkshire but the spotlight was on us from a worldwide audience and at the heart of it was people's passion for cycling.

We've now further embraced that passion by investing in our land to create suitable paths for all levels of cyclists and will be looking to further invest in future.

So don your helmet, dust off your spokey dokeys and get on your bike.

Fishing spots and prices

Recreational and sport fishing are fishing primarily for pleasure or competition. Recreational fishing has conventions, rules, licensing restrictions and laws that limit the way in which fish may be caught; typically, these prohibit the use of nets and the catching of fish with hooks not in the mouth.

The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits or lures such as artificial flies. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is generally known as angling. In angling, it is sometimes expected or required that fish be returned to the water (catch and release). Recreational or sport fishermen may log their catches or participate in fishing competitions.

All the information you need about fishing on our sites and the prices can be downloaded on the right hand side of the page.

Reviews of our recreation sites

As part of our promise for this year, we spoke to over 400 visitors at four of our recreation sites to understand what they thought about the site they are visiting.

The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 98% of visitors satisfied with our recreation sites.

Researchers spoke to customers about their experiences at each of the following: Brayton Barff near Selby, Scammonden near Rishworth, Scout Dike near Penistone and Agden in the Peak District National Park in South Yorkshire.

Visitors were particularly satisfied with the excellent paths and access, the beautiful scenery with a feeling of safety , the tranquil surroundings, and the sites being great for dog walking.

Our Catchment and Recreation Manager, Geoff Lomas, said: ‘We're delighted to discover how much visitors enjoy their experience. Over the years we've put a lot of effort into making the land around the reservoirs accessible for everyone. We've created new paths, reduced gradients where possible, widened paths to allow pushchairs and wheelchairs to pass and created resting points so views can be enjoyed to the full."