Abbeydale, Whirlow, Ringinglow, and Sheffield

Not all of the buses in Sheffield city centre use the bus station; I think it's mainly the cross-city services that don't, but I'm not sure. It's not very far to walk up the hill to Arundel Gate though to catch the 61/62 to Bradfield or the number 51 to Lodge Moor; however this morning I needed to walk right across the city centre to Pinstone Street to catch the bus to the start of today's walk.

I got off the bus at Abbeydale, about five miles south-west of the city centre. The footpath going into Ecclesall Woods was directly across the road.

I passed plenty of joggers and dogwalkers on my way up to Whirlow. I usually try to get out of the way of the joggers because many of them seem to be timing their runs; later on when it was icy underfoot on my way up the Limb Valley one of the joggers running towards me slipped and nearly fell over - I offered him a concerned expression and a wry smile before 'tut-tutting' my disapproval that he was wearing flimsy running shoes rather than sturdy walking boots.

I reached the first lying snow just before I reached the main Hathersage road at Whirlow; there was plenty of snow for me to enjoy today, even though none of it was virgin.

There was more snow but fewer people as I passed through Whirlowbrook Park and climbed up the valley towards Ringinglow.

A small group of Chinese students was waiting for the alpaca farm to open at ten o'clock - it's a visitor attraction where you can get close to the animals...and there's a cafe and shop as usual. Over to the left I could hear the sound of loud piped music coming from the direction of Lady Canning's plantation where there must have been a mountain biking competition being held on the specially designed track in the woods there.

As I was sitting on a bench at the top of Porter Clough eating my sandwiches a man walked by and informed it was 'very Canadian' - I didn't know what he was referring to or what to say in response and so just took a large bite from my delicious crab paste sandwich that I prepared last night using 'superseeded wholegrain bread. Superseded by what, I don't know though.  

A few minutes later it started to snow and turned to drizzle lower down the valley before clearing up.

I had a pot of tea at the Forge  Dam Cafe, the service was rather slow though.

As usual, and as expected it was busier for the next couple of miles down to Endcliffe Park; there's also a cafe there...I don't think I've had anything to eat there yet.

I left the park and crossed the road and headed for the General Cemetery; it's no longer used and is quite overgrown in places but there are some interesting buildings and monuments there.

There are two chapels; the first is the Non-Conformist Chapel and the second is the Anglican Chapel...both currently closed.

On my way back to the railway station I called in at the market and bought a crab, they are quite a bit cheaper than they are in Doncaster - I'll have it for my tea tomorrow.