About Us

We are a group of like-minded disabled people who enjoy being in the countryside and who get about using paths and trails of all kinds as our photo gallery shows.

We are truly ‘ramblers’, although very few of us can walk more than a few yards!  Our membership mainly consists of mobility impaired people and we get about using a wide variety of mobility aids ranging from manually propelled wheelchairs through power-chairs to shopping buggies and large off-road scooters.

We:

• organise and run a programme of supported rambles each year of varying difficulty all over England and Wales.  We aim to provide recreation and challenge to suit every taste and rely on help from volunteers, partners and carers.  The rambles are often planned in partnership with our professional contacts working in outdoor recreation.
• operate a Scooter Loan Scheme. Pre-booking for each ramble is essential.
• campaign for better access by encouraging those responsible to remove inaccessible man made barriers and, if appropriate, to address the surface quality of the path.

Our policy is to seek access while fully preserving the character of the countryside. We have covered thousands of miles of off-road trails and are committed to sharing our knowledge and experience with others.

How we started

In the early 1990s Dr Mike Bruton, our President, traversed the Ridgeway National Trail to raise funding for a medical charity and to explore issues of Disabled Access to the Countryside. Mike used a rickshaw made by Bristol Airways Apprentices and the 50 mile weekend event was successful with the help of volunteer teams of pullers. Mike subsequently formed the Countryside Access Group as a subsidiary to the Disabled Drivers Association from which the current national charity the Disabled Ramblers grew.