How to use our Plotaroute Maps

We upload our routes to Plotaroute for increased functionality so that you get to benefit from interactive and detailed route profiles, download options and other useful information such as route timings. Some maps has been embedded on The Durham Cow website for ease of access OR a link has been provided OR you can go directly to our Plotaroute Home Page directly to see all of our routes in the same place.

Although we do our best to ensure that we stick to permissive routes outside of open access land, the ultimate responsibility is YOURS (feel free however, to tell us if we’ve made a mistake).

TIP: If you’re not sure what something on the map does you can see a brief explanation by hovering your cursor over it – whether the map is minimised or expanded.

Instructions

  • Click the big arrow in the middle of the map in the Durham Cow web page to play the route and see the profile (you can switch between miles and kilometres by clicking the buttons on the map).
  • Click the crossed-arrows icon in the corner of the map to work in expanded, full-screen view (where the menus work better).
  • Icons in the top left of the map are zoom controls.
  • On the right-hand side are two menus: Display and Menu. Options in the Display menu can be turned on and off as can the sub-menu features. Particularly useful is Gradient (a bird’s-eye view of the steep bits), Road Type and Surface – all are off by default. 
  • Play around with the Menu to see how it works.
  • Photographs can be clicked on the map as well as being available from the menu (additional information is also available by clicking icons on the map)
  • Directions are usually available as long as they’re generic. Detailed directions, where they’re necessary, take longer to produce however.
  • Click on the arrows in the top right corner, to minimize the Plotaroute map and return to The Durham Cow web page.

Downloads

Very easy to do and one of the principal reasons we use Plotaroute. Scroll down from the map on the Plotaroute page to see links for various GPS formats (GPX; KML; TCX; FIT) as well as Image File options (JPG; PDF) for printed output. You can share routes socially and even get a weather forecast.

Hospitality

We maintain a map of hospitality outlets – typically independent cafes or pubs – where we can recommend them personally, where we’ve heard good things about them, where YOU recommend them to us or where they’re the only ones in the vicinity. Let us know wherever you’ve enjoyed quality hospitality (or otherwise), particularly those establishments that welcome walkers and cyclists.

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