New Bus Service

I've known about this for about a week but picked up a leaflet coming back from the Peak District today. The service, tagged on to the 257 route, is Sundays only during the summer. The timing of the first departure from Sheffield means that I'll be able to catch it if my train arrives at Sheffield station on time.

The route goes over the Snake Pass to Glossop and then continues to Hayfield, Chapel-en-le-Frith and Castleton. Apart from using the bus to get up onto Kinder Scout and Bleaklow I can certainly also use it to walk back from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Castleton. Depending on where the intermediate stops are there might be other viable routes back to Castleton.

Unfortunately I can't include an image of the timetable because I no longer have a scanner, but here's a link to the online timetable.

https://www.derbysbus.info/times/timetables/hul25745-sheffield-bakewell.pdf

Surprise View, Hathersage Booths, Hathersage, and Bamford

I woke up late this morning because of the clocks going forward and so had to catch a later train to Sheffield, meaning that it would also be a later bus out to the Peak District I'd be catching. However, that bus was cancelled and so I had to wait a further twenty minutes for the next one, the 272 service going to Castleton.

I got off at the Surprise View car park. I climbed up to Millstone Edge and took the path that goes along the top of the cliff. There are stunning views down the Derwent Valley and up the Hope Valley from here.

I then took the path that goes down to Hathersage Booths and walked the short distance along the road to Hathersage church.

There's a dense interlaced network of paths, tracks, and lanes to the north of Hathersage and I utilised some of these to make my way over to the bus stop at Bamford Station. I got there only a few seconds before the bus arrived.

  but only visiting the area of the village near the church. There's a network of footpaths to the north of the village which I used to walk over to the bus turnaround opposite to Bamford Station.

Byland Abbey, Helmsley, and Nunnington Hall

I don't gamble, but for today I had to make an exception. This week it's free admission at any tourist attraction that has received any National Lottery funding; all that's required is production of one lottery card or scratchcard per person. So...for the first time ever I bought two scratchcards...and won my money back on one of them, so I had to get another...and then I won £5. At my third attempt I was finally unlucky and didn't win, but I'd still shown a profit of a couple of Quid. I was also lucky in that I'd had to book the day out a couple of weeks ago, before I'd found out about this offer.

I went in the car with my support worker; en route to Helmsley we made a brief stop at Byland Abbey. It's free admission in to the substantial ruins there but I stayed on the road to take photos because it was rather muddy.

It rained more than I was expecting and so didn't take very many pictures at Helmsley. There are some lovely independent shops there though to go in; we had a meal in the Royal Oak pub...the lasagne was probably the best I've ever had.

Nunnington Hall is a few miles southwest of Helmsley; the hall wasn't particularly interesting.

Elsecar, Wentworth, Nether Haugh, and Upper Haugh

I caught two trains to get to Elsecar this morning, changing at Meadowhall. I walked downhill from the station to Elsecar Heritage Centre and spent a few minutes there; at this early hour none of the businesses were open, but the toilets were.

I then walked up to Wentworth, going across the fields, and through a small wood.

Wentworth's a pretty village, there's plenty to see there.

After I'd finished exploring the village I went down through the deer park and visited Wentworth Woodhouse for the first time ever. It's been open for a while now and so I was able to go right up to the building, looking for the tearooms. The tearooms are actually inside, at the back...and they're lovely. I didn't stay though, it really was too early for cake. I'll be returning soon, most likely with my support worker...not too soon though because the house will be closed to the public for most of April due to a major filming project.

I took the path that goes up to Nether Haugh.

It was a short walk over to Upper Haugh; as I walked by a bus stop on a housing estate I noticed that a bus was due and so I got on it and travelled to Rotherham, from where I caught another bus back to Doncaster.