Rivelin Valley Trail

 As the weather has been so nice, we recently took a trip up to Rivelin Valley, in Sheffield. It's a place that me and the boys have never visited but Steve used to go often, as a child.

Being a Saturday, there was a lot of traffic and it took us almost an hour to get there, but we soon found our way to Rails Road Car Park. (Click here to see on Maps)

At the end of the car park is a lovely little pond where we saw Mandarin Ducks, which are quite uncommon around here.

From the car park, we crossed Rails Road and entered onto the Rivelin Valley Trail and decided to follow the river downstream. The trail is a heritage trail, and there are markers along the route, showing where the various mills used to be.

There are so many waterfalls along the trail, some of the plunge pools are surprisingly deep though, apparently this one is 2m deep just below the waterfall!

The boys particularly enjoyed the various places where we had to cross the river, particularly the stepping stones! There are, at least, 3 sets along the trail but we only crossed one; due to the river level some of the stones were completely underwater, so we took an alternate path a little further up the hill.

We continued all the way down the valley to Rivelin Park, where we stopped to play on the playground and have an ice-cream, before heading back towards the car. The walk back up the valley is even more lovely, as you're facing all the waterfalls as you reach them.

By the end, we had walked 5.5 miles, and had been outside for 4hrs (great for our 1000 Hours Outside challenge). We'll definitely be back another time!

-Jenny-