“THE rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road, a reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire.”

So wrote GK Chesterton in 1914. He wasn’t talking specifically about the roads of the North York Moors, but the description is entirely apt. If our roadbuilders weren’t actually drunk, they were certainly no respecters of straight lines.

Our moorland roads seem to go out of their way to take the least direct route.

They plunge suicidally down steep hills, loop back on themselves, snake about for no apparent reason and sometimes even peter out in the middle of nowhere.

This, of course, is partly because they were not designed for the motor vehicle.

Many of our country lanes are very old routes once used by drovers, farmers and pedlars. Take Rudland Rigg, a ridgeway that once connected Kirkbymoorside with Stokesley and is now a favourite with walkers and mountain bikers.

Or Hambleton Street, running along the western edge of the national park, which was once the main cattle drovers’ road south from Scotland.

Moorland routes like these remained in common use long after roads were built in the valleys below, mainly because to use the new roads you had to pay a toll.

Besides, there were other compelling reasons to take the high road – the poet William Wordsworth used Hambleton Street to travel to his wedding in Brompton, near Scarborough, in 1802, stopping frequently to marvel at the panoramic views.

The new toll roads, known as turnpikes after the revolving stiles where you stumped up your pennies, were part of the first wave of transport modernisation to reach the North York Moors. They were generally straighter than the old roads, better maintained, properly drained and furnished with coaching inns.

Milestones at regular intervals, forerunners of today’s roadsigns, replaced the stone crosses that traditionally guided travellers over the moors. You can still see many of them at the wayside.

The A169 from Whitby to Pickering was originally a turnpike, built with private money in the late 18th century.

It replaced an earlier route over the moors to the coast that was notorious as a smuggler’s corridor. The new road opened to a chorus of complaint about the steep hill at the Whitby end which still catches drivers unawares.

The A169’s got nothing on Chimney Bank in Rosedale, however. This 1-in-3 incline, complete with hairpin bends, holds the distinction of being the joint steepest stretch of road in England (the other one being the Wrynose Pass in the Lake District).

Exploring our moorland roads is a pleasure that should be indulged at a leisurely pace, so why not take to two wheels? The Moor to Sea cycle route (www.moortoseacycle.net) is a 100-mile tour of the national park that can be done in one titanic effort or in many easy stages.

Alternatively, just get in the saddle and see where the rolling, reeling, rambling road takes you.

You might want to give Chimney Bank a miss, though.