Saturday 4th January 2020:
The first walk of the new year saw Graham Gill lead a party of 26 walkers on a five and a quarter mile circular walk from the Pentland Road Shops Car Park. Starting out at 10.00am the route took us out on Barnes Lane and over the Dore & Totley Golf Club course to Bradway. The sky was overcast with a faint drizzle in the air, but this improved as we made our way around. There were a few muddy areas along the way but nothing that we couldn’t walk round or pick a way through with care. On reaching Bradway we turned left on the main road and up to Tinker’s Corner where we went straight over and followed the bridleway and footpath down to the bottom of Mickley Lane. Here we took the track to the left of The Shepley Spitfire pub which was probably the muddiest section of the walk, but after about 400yards we took a path to the right and crossed the footbridge into Sheffield, the brook being the boundary with Derbyshire. We followed Totley Brook upstream for a short distance and had a coffee stop at a clearing at the waters edge.
Continuing after the coffee stop we made our way up through Gillfield Wood and back into Derbyshire at the first footbridge. This path then continues up past the rear of the 17th century Woodthorpe Hall where we turned right onto Fanshawegate Lane. It was then a left turn into Holmesfield Park Wood and over the footbridge and up to the path alongside Birchin Lee (Pearsons) Farm. We turned left at the busy main road to Dronfield Woodhouse and then back through the estate via Ox Close Lane to the Pentland Road shops just before 1.00pm. There were now some sunny intervals in the weather and fourteen of the party then went in the Jolly Farmer for some excellent food and a well earned drink. A good start to our walks in 2020.
Graham’s pics:
Richard’s pics :
