Stairfoot, Monk Bretton Priory, Notton, and Newmillerdam

Another late start this morning and so I didn't arrive at the start of the walk at Stairfoot, a couple of miles east of Barnsley, until 10:20. I headed north along the busy road towards Cundy Cross and would then continue along the Dearne Way long distance footpath.

But first I did a short detour to Monk Bretton Priory.

After a few minutes I reached the Dearne Valley Country Park and stayed within in for a couple of miles before picking up the route of an old railway line.

In the deepest part of the railway cutting it was still flooded in places and my progress was slow; fallen leaves were making it difficult to judge the depth of water and on a couple of occasions I had to climb up onto the embankment and then edge my way forward.

A short section of this abandoned railway line isn't shown as a definite public footpath on the Ordnance Survey map yet it was obviously used by locals...and so I used it as well. I soon found out why the official footpath has been diverted though; it seems that there's an area that is almost permanently flooded, or at least boggy - this wasn't a problem though because an alternative route sticking to higher ground had been established...well established over the years.

I  had to walk along a short stretch of country road and briefly entered the western outskirts of Notton before re-joining the footpath.

There was some quite nice countryside on the approach to Newmillerdam Country Park.

I then entered some woodland and was soon walking along the lakeside path; the photographs feature the boathouse..

It was more convenient for me to catch a northbound bus to Wakefield and then the train back to Doncaster than it was to catch a southbound bus to Barnsley and then another bus back home; I even let a southbound  bus go.

Today has been a perfect day for walking and taking photographs, it's just a pity that I didn't have enough time to get to the Peak District.

The Petroglyphs Of Edderthorpe

Stairfoot, Cundy Cross, Monk Bretton Priory, and Great Houghton.

There were no trains running to Sheffield again today so I caught the Barnsley bus to go on an expedition to photograph the 'Petroglyphs of Edderthorpe.' I discovered these rock carvings by accident about five years ago when walking with my brother down in a dark, deep, damp, and overgrown railway cutting...there are several dozen carvings of varying quality, carved over a period of several decades I should think. They're definitely not easy to find and I think this might be the first time they have been featured anywhere online...I spent quite a few minutes researching the other day.

As the bus passed through one of the estates at Darfield a middle-aged woman got on and asked for a 'return to Darfield from Stairfoot.'; the driver was confused, so was I...I've never heard anyone ask for a return fare to a particular destination like that before.

I got off the bus at Stairfoot, together with the woman who was on the first leg of her return journey, and several other people as well. I crossed the dual carriageway without any difficulty and walked up the road towards Cundy Cross and Monk Bretton Priory. I'd only been walking for a few minutes when I reached the TransPennine Trail; there was a decent view to look at here.

It wasn't long until I reached the priory where I lingered for about ten minutes taking photographs.

I then walked through a short section of Dearne Valley Country Park before the path took me up to the old railway viaduct. There was then a very complicated network of criss-crossing and parallel paths at different heights along old railway routes and meadows next to the river until I reached the particular cutting where the petroglyphs have been carved.

It was very dark down in the cutting and photography wasn't easy; I had to use the manual settings on the camera for the first time and many of the shots were unusable, too dark, out of focus, or over-exposed. These six turned out fine though; the bird glyph is recent, it wasn't there five years ago. 

A few hundred yards beyond the petroglyphs I had to scramble down the side of a bridge abutment; it was steep and a tight squeeze. Once safely down I was walking along another abandoned railway line, which I eventually left to cross over the footbridge spanning the new Grimethorpe road. It was then a short walk over the top of the landscaped spoilheap until I reached Great Houghton. The bus back to Doncaster was due, and so I caught it. I'd had enough for today; my feet were hurting me because I'd spent a lot of time walking on railway ballast and the tread on my boots was very worn. They weren't my best hiking boots, or even my number two pair - they were the first pair I grabbed off the shelf and were quite old and shabby...I won't be grabbing them again though because they're in the bin now.