I REFER to your Weekender cycle ride ('Way Of The Wolds', September 15).

Paul Kirkwood gives bad advice. The road from the B1252 to Sledmere Castle is not open to the public. If he did indeed 'recce' this route, he passed various notices saying that it was a private road and to come out would have had to carry his bike over a locked gate, surely indication enough that he was in the wrong.

Access to this estate is widespread (though not at the moment, because of the threat of foot and mouth to the deer herds). That Mr Kirkwood chose to so obviously trespass and that you chose to publish the report is disappointing.

I trust that you will make it clear to your readers that, should they follow this route, they are trespassing and will be turned back.

You may be interested to know this route was considered as an access route and offered by the estate. It was rejected by the then Humberside County Council as being potentially unsafe to the public, which recent experience would suggest was a correct assessment.

A Wilson,

Estate Office,

Sledmere,

Driffield.

Paul replies: I'm sorry if I inadvertently gave misleading information. I did carry out a detailed reconnaissance but must have missed the signs suggesting this was a private road. I did not encounter a closed gate on my journey

Updated: 10:46 Friday, October 05, 2001