Countryside signs -showing my ignorance here

[Murphs]

Ok - this may be a simple questyion for some of you to answer but i've got myself confused today.

We moved to a new area a couple of months back - fantastic riding country so, as the weather has started to bucjk up i've started to explore the bridlepaths. I'm armed with my OS map as it's not always clear where to ride (and here in lies another problem - my map reading skills ain't great either :o )

Anyway, i'm ok with the clearly marked bridlepath signs - ie. a horse on the little plaque but i've noticed today blue arrows and yellow arrows - both on the areas that are marked as bridlepaths on the OS map - for some reason i thought yellow arrows were footpaths only, no idea what blue means. Could someone please enlighten me

Thanks :o

[Lucy J]

i'm not sure, but on the OS maps I have a short dotted line is a footpath and a slightly longer broken line is a bridle path. i got my OS maps off the internet, i think you can go to ordanancesurvey.co.uk or something like that and select the area you are looking for.

[tasha]

Blue arrows are bridlepaths, and I think yellow are footpaths although they could be byeways open to all traffic (BOATs).

[artemis]

Boats are blue too I think. Some of the maps are out of date. OS are re-doing them.

[Murphs]

thanks for the replies.
Lucy J - i have the OS maps so know that, as far as i can navigate:o i'm on the bridlepaths. It's just that on some of the paths if they aren't signposted with the horse they have a blue arrow or a yellow arrow on the post on the actual path.
Tasha / Artemis - I thought blue was bridle so i'm happy with that - just a bit bothered then that some of the paths are marked with yellow arrows but the OS map shows as a bridlepath. There are other hoofprints on these tracks so i'll assume it's ok and if anyone questions me i'll show them the OS map with the bridlepath marked on it:o

[cwazka]

near me a lot of the footpaths aren't marked properly and the council have only just started to sort this out & persuade the farms not to have rolled barbed wire across their (padlocked) gates on the public ways and such! :D blue arrows are bridlepaths and yellow are footpaths strictly speaking BUT they have probably not been marked all that accurately anyway (we have arrows that point through peoples houses now just because thats where the path is according to the map!) so as long as the path seems suitable for riding along and doesn't upset anyone else I don't see why you shouldn't ride there! Happy hacking :)

[artemis]

Blue is bridleway! Round our way they go in for natural wood fingerposts. Yellow is definitly just for walkers.(got one cross my field)