Whirlow Bridge, Ringinglow, and Endcliffe Park

I travelled to Whirlow Bridge on the Castleton bus today and walked right up to the boundary of the Peak District at Ringinglow. I returned towards the city centre by descending Porter Clough; the top part, the first few hundred yards is quite steep in places and so I used the roads to join the route a bit lower down. There were plenty of buses at the walk's end, at the main entrance to Endcliffe Park on Ecclesall Road.

The view from the toposcope on Fulwood Road was rather misty and murky. I could clearly see Sheffield City Centre though, and a few miles beyond.

 

I bought an ice cream from Forge Dam Cafe at Fulwood, £3 for two scoops of chocolate brownie flavour.

When I was getting off the train back at Doncaster Railway Station I bumped into my friend, he'd been sitting two or three seats in front of me but I didn't know - we chatted for a few minutes on the platform before going our separate ways.

Whirlow, Ringinglow, Porter Clough, and Endcliffe Park

I caught the bus to Whirlow at the edge of the urban area of Sheffield and walked up the Limb Valley to Ringinglow. I continued along the road to the top of  Porter Clough and returned to Sheffield, coming out through Endcliffe Park on to Ecclesall Road. I had planned to catch the early train from Doncaster but it wasn't shown on the destination screens so I walked over to the bus station and caught the bus, which takes a lot longer. This meant that I arrived much later at Sheffield and so had to get a later bus to the start of the walk.

 

These barrels at the Norfolk Arms pub at Ringinglow provided a bit a colour.

I popped in to the coffee shop at the alpaca farm at Ringinglow for tea and cakes. Normally it would be too early for cake at eleven o'clock but I opted for a large slice of sticky toffee cake to cheer me up on a miserable, misty day when I was expecting sunshine from the weather forecast.

The upper part of Porter Clough is quite steep and uneven underfoot so I walked down a country lane to pick up the footpath further down the clough. Obviously I couldn't see anything from the viewpoint where the toposcope is located.

The Shepherd Wheel museum was open and running as I passed and so I went inside for a few minutes.

Millhouse Green, Ingbirchworth, Upper Denby, Silkstone, and Dodworth

I travelled to Millhouse Green again today, as far as I can get on the bus going to the west of Barnsley. I immediately headed to the northwest to get views of Royd Moor Windfarm, walking along Spicer House Lane.

There are a lot of wind turbines in this area, not just the ones at the windfarm. It's quite high up and very exposed, it's also just outside the boundaries of the Peak District. I don't think you're allowed to site any turbines within the national park.

There's a viewing platform with a seating area and a very detailed toposcope on the top of Royd Moor. According to the inscription it's possible to see as far as York.

I took the road that leads towards Ingbirchworth and then a path going across fields to the southern edge of the village; I didn't walk into the centre of the village though...I'd already done some research and there's nothing interesting there, just some modern housing.

Upper Denby is about a mile to the northwest - it's church is Victorian.

I then joined the Barnsley Boundary Walk, passing Gunthwaite Hall and stayed on this trail for nearly three miles before I continued going east as it swings to the northeast towards Cannon Hall, intending to finish the walk at Silkstone, three miles further to the east.

I was rushing to get to the bus stop, expecting a bus would be due in five minutes...but when I checked the timetable there wasn't one for over an hour. There's a gap of over ninety minutes without a bus going to Barnsley, probably because of the schools services I should think. I decided to carry on walking along the road for the mile and a half to Dodworth; I didn't save any time though because I still had to wait thirty minutes there and ended up catching the same bus I would have got on in Silkstone.

Fairholmes, Derwent Edge, Ashopton, Yorkshire Bridge, and Bamford

I travelled all the way to Fairholmes, on the train and then on the bus, with Douggie, a fellow walker from Doncaster. We've met quite a few times when catching the train to Sheffield but have never made any formal arrangements to meet up for a walk. Today he went walking over to Alport Castles...and I went in the other direction up to Derwent Edge, first reaching the Derwent Dam where I carefully photographed all of the new information panels.

I immediately headed for open country, climbing up Hollin Clough and eventually reaching the toposcope at Lost Lad and then the paved footpath along the top of the edge, stopping to take photographs at Back Tor, the Cakes of Bread, the Salt Cellar, and the Wheel Stones.

It's a steep descent down to what remains of Ashopton village after the valley was flooded to make the reservoir. Something smelled very tasty as I passed the pub at Yorkshire Bridge; I didn't stop though because I wanted to catch the next bus back to Sheffield. I needn't have hurried though - I got the departure times muddled up; they are different on a Sunday...for several years though they hadn't been.

As I was standing at the front of the bus waiting to get off at the stop for the railway station in Sheffield Douggie came down the stairs from the upper saloon; He told me that he'd got on at Hope, a few miles before me. So we travelled together on the train to Doncaster - we didn't say much  to each other though...we both had a short nap.