Rabbit Ings & The Yorkshire Sculpture Park ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered:  4.5 miles Time to Complete Walk: 2.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A great idea for a walking weekend, The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is chocka block with amazing thought provoking sculptures. Wander around at a leisurely pace, take a picnic or dine in at the wonderful Weston Cafe. Or take in an exhibition. Then don your walking boots for a walk at the nature reserve Rabbit Ings, with a pitstop at a pretty church. A great idea for a walking weekend around the Barnsley area.

Accomodation: IBIS Barnsley at Dodsworth just outside Barnsley and off the M1- highly reccomended and great value

General Safety Tips: Be careful on the road on the way back to Rabbit Ings, keep to the grass verge when you can. The track from Shafton to the bridge can get very muddy- wear walking boots and take a walking stick.

    

                                    The Rabbit Ings & The Yorkshire Sculpture Park walks

Getting There

From Middlesbrough head down the A19 onto the M1 Southbound towards Leeds. Look for Junction 38 and turn right onto the A637. The Weston parking area of The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a left turn. Parking is free with the purchase of entrance to the park which is £9.00 per adult.

For Rabbit Ings, rejoin the M1 southbound and follow this to Junction 37. Turn left into Barnsley and drive towards Royston. Rabbit Ings Country Park is a right turn after Royston and parking is free of charge.

Maps of the Rabbit Ings Walk

Map of The Yorkshire Sculpture Walk

The Rabbit Ings Walk

From the car park head through the A Frame gate and turn left.

Turn left to climb to the summit as the path climbs it zig zags to the top. Arriving at the top you come to the viewpoint in the form of a circle summit marker.

From the summit head down the path to your right.

Turn left at the bottom and follow the path 

Follow the path round until you come to an information board

Turn right and head up towards the road.

Go through the A Frame gate at the top, turn right and follow the path.

Head into Shafton and you soon come to The Singing Man pub on your right. Cross the road and follow the path into Shafton.

Follow the path until you come to Redthorne Way to your left. Head down this road.

Look for a left turn down a road with the Public Footpath sign on it. Head down this road until you come to a gap at the end of the housing.

Head down the field towards some pylons.

Head through the gate and look for a stile to your right in the next field - head down to the stile.

Turn left and join the track, follow the track until you come to a bridge

Before the bridge, turn left and head onto the road ahead.

Turn left and head to Church Lane on your right and St Peters Church which is a pretty church in Felkirk. Head down Church Lane taking great care with traffic for a better view of the church.

Head on down Church Lane and turn left and follow the road keeping to the grass verge wherever possible until you arrive back at the gate into Rabbit Ings on your right.

Turn left at the information board and take the left fork at the junction.

Take a small diversion on your left near a bench to a unique seating area.

Head up back onto the path turn left and, keep ahead at some crossroads and head back to the car park.

Rabbit Ings

Rabbit Ings is a country park just outside of Royston, near Barnsley. Groundwork South Yorkshire manages the park on behalf of the Land Trust and provides Park Rangers and a bank of volunteers to manage the site proactively and oversee the day-to-day running whilst engaging with local communities.

Rabbit Ings is located on the former colliery yard and spoil heap of the Monkton Colliery and then the Royston Drift Mine, which closed in 1989. The 76-hectare site officially opened in 2011 and is equivalent to 106 full-size football pitches! Rabbit Ings Country Park is home to a variety of wildlife, including newts, snakes, herons and deer.

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

A fascinating journey passing wonderful intriguing sculptures, this park with over 500 hectares, of parkland, woods and a river has cattle as well as artwork from artists such as Damien Hirst. Start from the Weston Car park and from the restaurant with exhibitions showing regularly and a shop, head into the park turning right from the Weston (dont forget to grab a map).

Pass by the striking Virgin Mother sculpture on your left by Damien Hirst

Turn left and cross the bridge and then turn right into woodland.

Dont miss the striking 3D scuplture ahead.

Walk over the stepping stones to the other side.

Look for cattle in the woods ahead.

Turn right and head over the bridge, just before a very modern sculpture!

On your left is a meditation chamber just down a short path.

Head to the right and a Jenga like sculpture!

From here, head onto the grass and a very striking sculpture in the middle of the field.

To your left is a small gathering of trees - with toilets and sinks as branches!

Heading back onto the path you soon come across a striking group of animal heads formed in a circle.

Head past another scuplture and then go over a bridge on your right. (There are a wealth of other sculptures and statues further up the park)

Head back to the restaurant and car park at The Weston or explore the park further!

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The sculpture park occupies the 500-acre (200-hectare) parkland of Bretton Hall.

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, opened in 1977, was the UK's first sculpture park based on the temporary open air exhibitions organised in London parks from the 1940s to 1970s by the Arts Council and London County Council (and later Greater London Council). The 'gallery without walls' has a changing exhibition programme, rather than permanent display as seen in other UK sculpture parks such as Grizedale Forest.

18th-century estate which was a family home until the mid-20th century when it became Bretton Hall College. Follies, landscape features and architectural structures from the 18th century can be seen around the park including the deer park and deer shelter (recently converted by American sculptor James Turrell into an installation), an ice house, and a camellia house. Artists working at YSP, such as Andy Goldsworthy in 2007, take their inspiration from its architectural, historical or natural environment.

Since the 1990s, YSP has made use of indoor exhibition spaces, initially a Bothy Gallery (in the curved Bothy Wall) and a temporary tent-like structure called the Pavilion Gallery. After an extensive refurbishment and expansion, YSP has added an underground gallery space in the Bothy garden, and exhibition spaces at Longside (the hillside facing the original park). Its programme consists of contemporary and modern sculpture (from Rodin and Bourdelle through to living artists). British sculpture is well represented in the past exhibition programme and semi-permanent installations. Many British sculptors prominent in the 1950s and 1960s have been the subject of solo exhibitions at YSP, including Lynn Chadwick, Austin Wright, Phillip King, Eduardo Paolozzi, Hans Josephsohn, and Kenneth Armitage. Exhibitions tend to be monographic – rather than group or thematic.

The redundant Grade II* listed St Bartholomew's Chapel, West Bretton built by William Wentworth in 1744 has been restored as gallery space.