Visitors to the Dales are being urged to check walking routes before setting off up the fells.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is encouraging people to get out into the countryside, but warns not all routes are open.

The authority's alert comes after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced Craven was foot and mouth free from January 1.

But not all the clean up work, as a result of the ten-month-long epidemic, has been completed on farms in the Skipton and Settle zone and access to these areas is still barred.

A Yorkshire Dales spokeswoman, said: "Those farms which were culled or were contiguous will remain under restrictions. We are pressing DEFRA to carry out the risk assessments on these areas as quickly as possible.

"Meanwhile, we are urging people to adhere to the signs on the rights of way but also to check at national park centres to get specific information about routes."

Huge areas of the Dales are now open, especially in Bishopdale and Wensleydale. Grass Woods, at Grassington, the Strid Walk at Bolton Abbey, and the footpaths to Malham Cove, Janet's Foss and Gordale Scar are also open. There is also access to the Three Peaks of Whernside, Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough and it is now possible to walk in Skipton Wood and on Barden Moor.

A DEFRA spokesman said all livestock movements needed a licence but animals could now move between the counties of Yorkshire, County Durham and Cumbria..

"Those farms that were culled out as infected premises or as dangerous contacts will remain under restrictions until they have completed the cleansing and disinfection process and restocked successfully."

And some farms not carrying our secondary cleansing would remain under restrictions for 12 months, he added.

People should telephone Grassington national park office on (01756) 752774 or at Hawes on (01969) 667450 to check the routes.