Sunday 7th August 2022 – Langsett – South Yorkshire
By staying in our own county the coach reached its destination, Langsett Barn layby, relatively early, at 9am. We were soon walking across Langsett Reservoir Dam wall. This supply reservoir is one of Yorkshire Water’s largest in the Sheffield district with a capacity of over 1,400 million gallons, and also has one of the largest earth embankments in the UK. Anthropogenic climate change, demonstrated by recent heatwaves and low rainfall had resulted in unusually shallow reservoir levels at the time of our visit. The first steep hill gave a taste of things to come in this very undulating, rural South Yorkshire countryside. Footpaths crossed agricultural grasslands before a coffee stop at the top of a hill overlooking purple heather moorland at the edge of the Peak District national park.
Emley Moor transmitter mast was visible some 12 km north. About halfway through the walk we had a one hour lunch stop at Cubley Hall, where packed lunches were enjoyed outdoors in the beer garden. The Hall was a moorland farm on the Pennine pack horse routes in the 1700s, eventually becoming the country pub we visited today. Moving on from the outskirts of Penistone we joined the surfaced Trans-Pennine Trail, which of course, links the East and West Coasts and traverses Doncaster. Only one non-walker today, who spent the day at nearby Holmfirth.
- Start and finish point – A circular walk from Langsett.
- Walk leader – Trevor Roebuck.
- Number of walkers – 29 and 1 non-walker.
- Distance – 9 miles / 14.5 kilometres.
- Terrain – Paths through rolling countryside and along a dismantled railway track. There were a number of stiles.
- Highest point – 300m / 1000 feet.
- Weather – Our run of fine-weather-walks continued, with very warm temperatures in the mid-20º C and a clear blue sky.
Club news – Jean Torrington requested walk leaders to take a form and submit their proposed 2023 walk/s within the next couple of months.
Credits – Trevor Roebuck was thanked for leading the walk and Dave Dove for commendable back-marking. David Torrington and Vivienne Dales kindly provided photographs for this August news blog.
Author’s memo – I had forgot how steep hills can be in South Yorkshire.
