Distance Covered: 6 miles Time to Complete Walk 3 hours
Suitable for dog walking: Yes
Shirebrook Valley is a nature reserve with lots of spaces to explore local wildlife and a great place to walk for every season. This walk heads to marshes and then back via a railway path through woods and is a great varied walk ideal for a good decent sized walk. Situated outside Sheffield, this is a great walk if you are based in South Yorkshire or just visiting.
General Safety Tips: The woods on the return journey can get very muddy after rain, there are a few busy roads to cross, take extra care.
The Shirebrook Valley walk
From Middlesbrough head down the A19 to the A1M southbound. Head down the A1 to junction 35 which is the M18 turnoff. Head onto the M18 until the M1 onto the Rotherham Gateway. Turn left onto the Mesborough Parkway which is the A57 and then left down Cosley Hill. Turn right onto Stone Lane and the car park is on your right and is free of charge
Sat Nav postcode is S41 7RU
Maps of the Shirebrook Valley walk
The Walk
From the car park head left down Stone Lane.
Turn right after approx 20m and go through an A Frame and turn left onto the Trans Pennine trail
Just before the main road, turn left through an A Frame and onto a path over Stone Lane to the right
Head down the path and at a fork in the path head on the right hand fork and continue on the path ahead
Keep left at another fork and follow the path which stays close to the road on your right
Go over a small footbridge and keep ahead on the path
Turn left onto a path near a pond/lake area and head to the right of the water
This area is the Centenary Pond and head around to a green bench
Head past an information board and over a small footbridge
Head along the path over the brook and into an open space with a pylon in the middle
Head over to the other over the grass path and at a crossroads take the left path and go over a footbridge
Head in an upwards direction and through an A Frame
Turn right and follow the path to the right and through a gate
Follow this path through another A Frame and past some cute hedgehog art
Head onto the wider path passing some horse stables/buildings
Head through a gate and follow the path passing the remains of a colliery
Keep ahead on the path to Linleybank Meadows
Follow the cycle route as the path enters a clear direction and slowly ascent- keep ahead at a crossroads
Keep ahead at another junction into Linleybank Meadows
When the path reaches a T junction turn right and head down the path
Keep left at a fork and head down to the road and an A Frame
Cross over the road and turn right immediately onto a path to Beighton Marsh
Head through an A Frame and pass the marshes to your right which have a variety of wildlife based on the season
Follow the path as it bends to the left and towards an A Frame to a path near the railway line
Turn left and follow the path beside the railway to a gate onto a road
Head down the road and then to the left and follow the road ahead again
Follow the road passing houses and then turn right when you come to a road to head for Woodhouse Station
Head down the road near the station and to the railway footbridge
Just past the footbridge head down a path to your left and slightly right down a path that descends
Head over a small bridge and then follow the path ignoring all the paths off shoots
This path weaves its way towards a school and the main road.
Cross over the road carefully and enter the Shirtcliffe Woods on the other side
Follow this path which gets muddy keeping to the right of the brook for the duration of the walk in the woods passing all the bridges
Eventually you meet the main road and the TransPennine path just before the road
Turn left onto the path and over a road to the other side
Follow the path to another road and cross over onto Stone Lane and back to the car park
The Local Nature Reserve was designated in 1999 and extends over an area of approximately 100 hectares.
It is based around the former site of the Coisley Hill Sewage Works which closed in the early 1990s. The manager's office has been converted into a visitors' centre. The reserve includes Beighton Marsh, an area of reed-grass swamp situated at its eastern end, which supports birds such as reed bunting, grasshopper warbler and barn owl, as well as mammals such as the harvest mouse and water vole. The Birley Spa Bath House, a Grade II listed building, was restored with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2001. Also within the reserve is Wickfield Plantation, one of the few remaining areas of lowland heath and coppiced oak woodland inside Sheffield.
The reserve contains Carr Forge Dam which is fed by a stream from Birley Spa and is a location for wildlife. New ponds were created in the same area to mark the centenary of the City of Sheffield. The Centenary Ponds were opened by Clive Betts on 18 June 1993. Further ponds were created in 2016 to encourage amphibians. Also added to the eastern side of the reserve is a landscaped former landfill site, called Linley Bank Meadow, now home to skylarks and a likely location for soaring buzzards
The reserve is popular with cyclists and walkers, having a network of paths and the Transpennine Trail running through is used by a running club, for orienteering events, geocaching, company team-building days, school visits etc. The reserve has a car-park accessed from Stone Lane.
Fishing is banned on the site as most access points involve walking under pylons which has resulted in fishing rods conducting electricity and burning anglers. After one bad accident in 2004, the council took the unusual step of removing all the fish from the site to deter anglers. This decision was criticised by the Countryside Alliance.
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