Fairholmes, Low Bradfield, Holdworth, Loxley, Malin Bridge, and Hillsborough

A much longer walk in the Peak District today after yesterday's short walk with two friends along Froggatt Edge. The day didn't start well though, I arrived at Doncaster Railway Station to discover that the early train to Sheffield had been cancelled...no replacement coach provided, no information on the screens, no staff to be seen anywhere... So, I had to catch the bus which takes a lot longer but I still arrived at Sheffield just in time to get on the bus going to Fairholmes.

I walked over to the dam and then continued along the track that goes alongside the eastern shore of Derwent Reservoir.

After three quarters of a mile I reached a footpath which was going up onto the moors. I travelled eastwards across the  high ground for about three miles until I arrived at the road just north of the Strines Inn.

The trig point at Back Tor was the highest point I reached on my walk today.

After walking along the road for a few minutes I took the concessionary footpath which goes through the woods alongside the northern, or western shore of Dam Dike Reservoir. There's a memorial to the victims of the 'Great Sheffield Flood' of 1864 when the dam wall collapsed, and there's also an information panel about the disaster when at least 240 people died - I didn't take any photographs though because there were several people at each location and I didn't want to be seen as conspicuously waiting for them to move away.

There was more roadwalking down into Low Bradfield and then it should have been footpaths across fields all the way to Loxley...however, I lost my path and ended up walking on the road again for most of the stretch to Holdworth. My route went over the fold of the map so I didn't bother to check where I was going.

Low Bradfield is a pretty village. There are some tearooms there which I haven't visited yet.

When I joined the footpath at Holdworth I was walking along the Sheffield Country Walk - I left it just before Worrall to take a more southerly route towards Loxley Common and then Wadsley Common.

I went through  some extensive woodland on my approach to Loxley - I'd not been that way before, and my descent into the Loxley Valley was all new to me as well. I couldn't catch a tram from the terminus at Malin Bridge because the tracks are being replaced. I had to walk a bit further to Hillsborough where trams were running to the city centre though.

My train back to Doncaster was eight minutes late departing, but at least it wasn't cancelled. It wasn't a good day for public transport today.