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.
