Mountain bikers, horse riders and walkers joined the launch event on the Black Harry trails

Walkers and mountain bikers have the chance to travel on moorland tracks once stalked by a dangerous highwayman.

The Black Harry Trails have been improved and upgraded to allow visitors to the Peak District to follow the old packhorse trails frequented by the notorious robber.

The routes link Great Longstone and Stoney Middleton and consist of existing bridleways that have been resurfaced, with environmental improvements and better signs.

Work has been carried out, much of it by volunteers, thanks to £13,000-worth of help from the Derbyshire Aggregates Levy Grant Scheme which has been axed in coalition Government cuts. The scheme was set up to compensate local communities for the affects of quarrying, and many of the routes in question are close to the controversial Longstone Edge site which has been the subject of protracted legal wrangling.

The project was carried out by the Peak District National Park Authority in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, residents, user-groups, local organisations and businesses. 100 days’ work was put in by Peak Park Conservation Volunteers working with the Peak District Vehicle User Group, Peak Horse Power and Rocking the BOAT.

The national park authority has produced a leaflet for the trails

National park access officer Sue Smith said: “Longstone Edge has long been scarred by quarrying which may have deterred some people in the past, but it offers magnificent panoramic views which we’d like more people to enjoy.

“The Black Harry Trails will mainly be for mountain-bikers, horse-riders and walkers. Motorised vehicles can legitimately use parts of it, but we hope the new signs and barriers will deter them from going where they have no right to be.

“Black Harry is part of our local heritage who is still with us in the names of Black Harry Lane and Black Harry Gate. We thought it was a memorable name for what we hope will be a memorable project.”

Many of the routes follow mediaeval packhorse routes on which early eighteenth century travellers crossing the lonely moors over Longstone Edge were vulnerable to attack and robbery by Black Harry. He was eventually caught, hanged and then gibbeted at Wardlow Mires. ‘Derbyshire vultures’ from Ravensdale are reputed to have picked his bones clean.

Many of the routes converge on the junction of Black Harry Gate at SK 206 742. Black Harry Farm was demolished to make way for the Blakedon Hollow lagoon constructed in the 1970s to deal with the waste from fluorspar processing.