Video: Actor Martin Clunes opens Pennine Bridleway in the Yorkshire Dales

ACTOR and avid horse rider Martin Clunes officially opened the Pennine Bridleway yesterday amid hopes the £10m project which has taken eight years to come to fruition will provide a major boost to tourism.

The Men Behaving Badly star, who is the president of The British Horse Society, cut the ribbon yesterday to declare all 205 miles of the National Trail open after painstaking efforts to create the route.

About £10m has been spent acquiring access rights and constructing the route, which has seen 65 miles of new bridleway created. A total of 140 agreements have been agreed with landowners to create new bridleways on land with no previous access or upgrading footpaths.

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Mr Clunes revealed his love of childhood love of riding has been reignited by his wife, Philippa, and daughter, Emily, and the family keep 17 horses on their farm in Dorset.

Speaking at yesterday’s launch, he said: “It is wonderful to be given this opportunity, and it is a wonderful part of Yorkshire to come for a holiday.

“The opportunities that this offers are great, not just for riders, but also for cyclists and businesses like bed and breakfasts.

“We will certainly be coming back up – I got a taste of what the bridleway has to offer when we went on a short ride ourselves.”

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The Pennine Bridleway is the only National Trail specifically designed for horse-riders, but also offers a route for mountain-bikers and walkers. The bridleway – England’s third longest National Trail – starts at Middleton Top, in Derbyshire, and heads through the Peak District to the south Pennines.

It then heads north to the Yorkshire Dales National Park before skirting the western edge of the North Pennines to finish at Street, near Ravenstone in Cumbria. It has been achieved in partnership with nine local authorities and has been funded by Natural England and £1.8m from Sport England.