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A desire path, wish trail, pirate path or simply a shortcut - no matter what you call it, everyone uses them.

Everywhere you walk you’ll see trodden-down parts of grass made by people trying to shave a sneaky few seconds off their journey.

The footsteps of one person soon turn to dozens, then hundreds and even thousands, as people wear down the ground to create what the Guardian recently described as the 'illicit trails which defy urban planners'.

Unsurprisingly, Bristol's got lots of them.

When you think of your walk to work, to school or in your local park, you might be able to picture one. A dusty path on the Downs, the route to the crossing on Pennywell Road, or a cut-through in Castle Park - the people of Bristol know the paths they wish to take.

Some of these shortcuts are more well-trodden than others - like the one near the Cumberland Basin up to the Ashton Avenue Bridge - while some are just beginning, like many of the faint lines which line Durdham Down.

Many can be seen from above on Google Maps, while others will only be known by the city-dwellers who use them.

Reddit has desire line threads, where thousands of people share their hometown’s quirky and mysterious pathways. They seemingly form everywhere.

They aren’t a new fascination. Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Long, who grew up in Clifton, loved the concept so much he created an off-site work commissioned by the Arnolfini during his 2015 Time and Space exhibition, marking a desire line on the Downs.

(Image: Copyright unknown)

Some urban planners have embraced them. In Finland, city officials document where people walk in parks after the first snowfall of the year and then use that data to plan their trails.

In the US, institutions like Virginia Tech and the University of California have reportedly purposefully left out pathways during developments, instead waiting to see where students naturally walked before then adding them in.

In Bristol, too, some paths have been so well-used they’ve been turned into official routes - there’s one just outside Castle Park, and there’s one at the top of Blackboy Hill.

Bristol has voted with its feet.