Looking For Bluebells

Another Doncaster walker posted a photograph of some bluebells that he'd taken on his daily exercise walk yesterday, so I got around to thinking where my nearest bluebells might be and I decided it must be Sandall Beat Wood, just beyond the racecourse. 

There might have been some in the park, but there weren't any.

It's still a bit too early in the season - I only found a few in flower and they weren't fully out; it could have been because it was early in the morning though.  

I've got bluebells growing in my garden but they won't be blooming for a few weeks yet, I think they're the Spanish variety which probably flowers later.

Doncaster Lakeside Permitted Daily Exercise Walk

For a change this morning I went to Doncaster Lakeseide for my daily permitted exercise walk; it's a lot more interesting than Town Fields. Some stretches of the walkway are a bit narrow though and I had to pass a bit closer to other people than I would have wanted to at the moment.

Google Street View Virtual Walk: A Circular Walk From Peak Wildlife Park

The X71 bus would have been stopping outside the entrance gates to the Peak Wildlife Park at Winkhill; I'm not sure how many people would have been wanting to get off there to visit the park for the full day, but it would have been a useful location for me to be able to reach a lot of good walking country in all directions.

I would have started by walking  over to the southwest, to the church at Ipstones and then continuing to Consall Station on the Churnet Valley Railway. I couldn't find any suitable images of the area to crop though.

For the next stretch of the walk I would have used the towpath of the Caldon Canal, which flows close to the railway track.

I would have walked up the road at Froghall Wharf and then located a path heading east which comes out onto a minor road in the Upper Cotton area.

There's a church at Cauldon, the next village I planned to visit. I didn't see any other old or attractive buildings in the village though as I walked through using Street View; it's right next to a quarry and what looks like a cement factory.   Finally I would have made my way back to the wildlife park to wait for the bus.

When I was studying the map to work out the route of this walk I noticed that there's a quarry at Cauldon on the site of Caldon Low, the same name as the canal. I wonder if 'Cauldon' and 'Caldon' are variant spellings of the same word? 

Wombwell Railway Station

I like maps, geography in general, and public transport. I use buses and trains to get to the start of my walks and so I got around to thinking about which is the closest railway station to Doncaster that I haven't yet used, and what walks I'd be able to do in that immediate area?

Well, it didn't take much time to work it out; it's Bentley on the line going out to Leeds, less than two miles from the town centre. It's easier for me to travel on the bus there, and I've done all the possible local walks. 

So, I then decided to have a re-think and re-define my parameters to be the nearest railway station where there's a good choice of local footpaths that I've not previously used...and the answer is Wombwell, about ten miles away, but not on a direct line from Doncaster.

There's some nice countryside near Wombwell Station. Wombwell is a large area of rolling woodland with a few open spaces - I've walked along a couple of the paths on the edge of the wood when heading elsewhere.  Worsbrough Country Park and Mill is quite  scenic with some nice tearooms. Elsecar Heritage Centre is an interesting place to visit, it's a collection of mainly eighteenth and nineteenth century industrial buildings now used as cafes, craft shops and galleries. There's also a large antiques centre there. It's then a lovely walk up the hill across the fields to Wentworth, a charming estate village belonging to Wentworth Woodhouse, at one time either the largest private residence in England, or even Europe, or the building with the longest continual façade.

There's an extensive deer park on the edge of the village, several interesting follies in the nearby countryside, a large garden centre with formal landscaped grounds, pretty cottages, plus craft shops and a small antiques centre...plus some charming, slightly eccentric tearooms which I've visited a few times. I love the knitted woollen teapots, cups and sauces, and cakes they have on display...as well as other interesting stuff. Their real cakes are delicious, too.

Google Street View Virtual Walk: Hulme End To Buxton

Another one of my Google Street View virtual walks, a walk from Hulme End to Buxton today; I'd planned to start several walks from this location on what was going to a stop on be the X71 bus route.

For the first couple of miles I would have been walking along the Manifold Trail,  going north. When I reaching a location shown as Pool on the map I would have left the trail and headed in a northwesterly direction.

My route would then take me to the north, passing well to the west of Longnor and picking up the Manifold Trail again,  soon leaving it again  though to get to Hollinsclough.

At Booth Farm I would have swung back to the northwest, passing close to Stanley Moor Reservoir and joining the Dane Valley Way for the approach to Buxton going through Buxton Country Park. I would have caught the bus back to Sheffield or Bakewell from the Market Place, or even one of the bus stops further south on London Road and so I haven't included any images of the lower town, where all of the tourist attractions are.

I'm sorry that several of the  photographs that I've generated from Google Street View are a bit similar, but it's the best I could manage...I didn't actually do the walk.