Rother Valley Country Park ~ Easy Walk

Distance Covered: 3 miles Time to Complete Walk 2 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A very easy to follow walk at the Rother Valley Country Park- a destination for walkers, cyclists and anyone who loves watersports. Theres some excellent cafes on site and you can hire a bike as well. This walk is an easy walk around the lakes in the country park -there is a nature reserve onsite as well- a great family day out!

General Safety Tips: This is a very safe walk. Look out for cyclists along the way as the path doubles up as a cycle way as well

The Rother Valley Country Park Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough head onto the A19 and join the M1 Southbound. After Alverley at junction 35 turn onto the M18 through Aston and turn left at the roundabout onto Mansfield Road through Wales. Turn right onto Pithouse Lane and this will take you to the car park near the visitor centre. Parking is £3.00 for 2 hours.

Maps of the Rother Valley Country Park Walk

The Walk

From the car park head to the right to begin the walk passing some picnic tables and a round stone sculpture.

Follow the path down to the Waterside Cafe - a great place for a snack 

Keep to the right passing a bike hire shop heading through some trees

Follow the path which passes the sailing club

Keep on the path and head left through a gate 

Follow the path which passes the jet-ski part of the park - keep ahead at a junction

Keep on the path as it bends to the right around the lake

Keep on the path as it passes an information board

Keep to the left path at a junction 

The path soon bends around another lake

Keep on the path - you may have to give way to the local geese!

The path now nears a miniature railway and then heads through a gate and the car park is on your right.

Rother Valley Country Park

The Rother Valley Country Park is a country park in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, close to Rotherham's border with Sheffield and Derbyshire. It covers 3 square kilometres (750 acres) and has four artificial lakes, recreational activities and nature reserves. The majority of the park is on land that was open cast for coal, with the main excavation sites filled by the artificial lakes.

The park was officially opened on 27 May 1983, at a cost of £4 million. It aimed to provide an area for recreational pursuits, encourage wildlife to return to the area, and provide a flood protection plan for the areas downstream. When the construction was finished, the lakes were filled with fresh water from The Moss (about 1.6 miles (2.5 km) away) because the River Rother was so heavily polluted at that time.

The park was formerly a mixture of meadows and marshy bullrush beds before the open cast excavation started. At the eastern side of the lake stands the Bedgrave Mill courtyard, where the visitor centre is located displaying the flood defence map and the original mill mechanism "flour into grain" exhibition from when it was a water mill. There is also a craft centre and "The Stables" cafe.

Rother Valley Country Park is home to Sheffield Cable Waterski and Aqua Park. The cable waterski system was installed when the park was originally opened to the public; it was one of the few cable waterski systems in the UK at the time. In recent years an Aqua Park (inflatable obstacle course) was added. The popularity of cable waterskiing has since grown significantly, and there are now a number of these systems in the UK, mainly focused on offering kneeboarding and wakeboarding facilities and what is now called a Wake Park, which is a collection of obstacles (kickers, sliders, etc.) floating in the lake that riders will "hit" on their way round and do tricks from. It is very similar to a snowboard or skateboard park.

There are a licensed waterfront bar and a café at Sheffield Cable Waterski.

An 800-metre (2,600 ft) long 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge miniature railway was opened on the east side of the main lake in 2009. The railway owns two locomotives, one diesel hydraulic and the other battery electric. Passengers are carried in carriages which they either sit in, or sit astride.