It's only been a short walk because I was feeling a bit under the weather, but what lovely weather it was this morning in the Hope Valley.
My train was only a couple of minutes late arriving at Sheffield and so I was able to catch the Castleton bus. I spent about an hour wandering around the village before heading off to Hope across the fields.
The next photograph isn't as dramatic as it looks, it's a close-up shot of a dead, diseased tree trunk.
It's been a lovely sunny and mild Christmas Day so far and so I took the opportunity to go for a short walk this morning, walking around an almost empty city centre...it's only ten minutes away from where I live. I've been out of the house for less than an hour, but I really needed it.
A local walk today since the weather forecast for the Peak District deterriorated somewhat yesterday. I caught the Barnsley bus to Hickleton.
I wasn't able to take many photos of the church because there were workmen there putting up scaffolding.
You can't get up close to the hall, this shot was taken from the road.
I walked down the road to Barnburgh until I reached the footpath that goes along the base of the crags.
I'm certain there are a few more stone carvings, but these two were the only ones I could see from the path.
I than briefly walked along the next road and found the path going down to the Crown Inn on the edge of Harlington.
Next I passed through Barnburgh Grange and came out at the bottom end of High Melton. It was a short walk to the TransPennine Trail which goes alongside the River Dearne here. After about a mile and a half I arrived at Conisbrough Railway Station, as I approached though I saw the Doncaster train leaving from the platform and so I continued, going up to the town, the climb being quite steep in places, to catch the bus.
I got off the bus at the Filter Houses at Rivelin, just inside the boundary of the Peak District. I soon reached my first footpath, which initially appeared to be blocked, but as soon as I pushed against the barrier it swung open.
Maybe the route was actually closed though because the path soon disappeared. I soon found another well established path though and continued to climb up to the hamlet of Rails, and then Stopes, which now consists mainly of a new housing development built on the site of a former mill.
I needed to walk along the road for a few minutes to reach Storrs and then the footpath taking me down into the Loxley Valley.
I followed the River Loxley downstream until I came to a path that was definitely blocked this time. Just a few yards beyond where the stile in the photograph is located I came across a fallen tree, an overgrown path, a cliff face and the river. Looking at my map it looked like there should be a footbridge somewhere here; my map's old though, about forty years old. Fortunately I didn't have to double back too far to pick up the footpath on the other side of the river.
The rest of the way back to the tram terminus at Malin Bridge was easy going...I only had a few minutes to wait for the next departure to the railway station.
It looked rather murky over to the west on the high moors, just as it did last week when I also stuck to the eastern fringes of the Peak District.
I travelled to the Cross Scythes pub at Totley and headed south, using the Sheffield Country Walk. Where the route takes a sharp turn to the left I continued straight ahead for Holmesfield.
I continued to head south, taking a path that goes next to one of the pubs; the gate I had to pass through was, by a long way, the most complicated and difficult to use and the most physically demanding that I've ever encountered. I had to check my map several times as I progressed, there are a lot of criss-crossing paths in this area. I don't like passing through fields where there are cows, but it has to be done - I've never seen all white cows before though and so did stop to take a photograph.
I had to wait over an hour for a bus because two didn't turn up. It's a rather uncomfortable place to be stranded for so long, it's very exposed to the weather [which fortunately wasn't too bad], there's certainly not a bus shelter here but neither is there anywhere to sit - there's not even a wall, a boulder or even a grassy bank. I did notice that there's a phone number on the bus stop to ring for information and updates; I'm not sure if the buses on this route have trackers though. Even if I were able to acquire some information it wouldn't really be any use to me. There aren't really any options from this location; the next bus stop is at Owler Bar, a mile away along a busy, dangerous road. There's a wall to sit on, or maybe lean against, and a couple of pubs, one of which is closed for renovation.
