Wath Wood and Roman Ridge

This is a walk from my book Walking South Yorkshire (pages 73-76). The distance is five miles, but I added a couple by walking to Rawmarsh and back from my house. This took about an hour either way, but being Sunday the buses weren't too reliable and probably wouldn't have let us on on the way back, as we were covered in mud!

We arrived at Victoria Park at 11am for Sybil to have her first taste of freedom, after being on the lead for an hour. We then left the park at the top and crossed the main road to head down into Warren Vale Nature Reserve. This is a mainly wooded site with an area of grassland adjoining Birch Wood, where there was an interesting-looking bridge to cross.

Viking Longboat Bridge

Walking through a couple of fields, we reached Blackamoor Road where Sybil was getting over-excited due to a German Shepherd in front of us and a Golden Retriever behind. Thankfully the owners of the (very well-trained) German Shepherd decided not to head across the stile we were aiming for and carried on. I soon saw why as the ground behind the stile had disappeared under a small lake of water. I negotiated my way around (and through) this while Sybil decided to nip over a stone wall separating the footpath from a garden. After a telling-off we headed up Abdy Lane and into Wath Wood where we were informed by my book we were walking along the Roman Ridge.

The Roman Ridge

Temporarily reaching the road, we left it again to visit the Pottery Ponds, where a couple of men were feeding the ducks and lone goose some bread. We visited Waterloo Pottery Kiln but couldn't get a good picture as the sun was right behind it. I'm not into history too much but still found the information panels interesting.

Eventually managing to cross the busy A633, I promptly proceeded to get us both lost in Creighton Woods Nature Reserve. I soon managed to put us right however, luckily noticing the concrete bollards of the former car park. The next bit of the walk was very pleasant, heading down and then back up fields with some great views all around us.

Ambling along

The walk then ends up back at Victoria Park, but instead I headed down through Rawmarsh to walk us back home the way we had come.