Pensto two

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Walked from Stocksbridge to Penistone. A good walk, but hard work, particularly getting up to the ridge through the gorse. Also had to walk past a clay pigeon shoot at the top of that hill who were closer than I expected to the right of way line. The route deserves its snail, but is definitely for walkers only.

Having walked PenThu two and StoThu one earlier in the day, most of this route was fresh in the memory, but that also means I walked most of it in both directions. Maybe it is because my knees are not what they were, but I found the route out of Stocksbridge much easier going uphill rather than down. The path up the hill starts well, but has a lot of steps and a few stiles. Beyond Mill Lane we leave the route of StoThu one. The stile at the bottom of this section is almost disappearing into the undergrowth, and higher up finding paths through the gorse is a matter of trial and error, and the straight line the right of way takes is pure fiction. With a little determination you should reach the phone masts/towers.

This is where I encountered the clay pigeon shooters, who were aiming west along the top of the escarpment from under the tower. Those who value their safety might be better advised to use the road route (see StoThu one) if shots are audible from below.

Beyond the tower the path goes down a good farm track to reach Hill Top Lane, where we turn left. On reaching Don Hill Height, we turn right down the hill, then right again at the T junction and left into the fields on the signposted footpath. The path through the upper wheat field is a little awkward because of the long grass, and lower down a stile has steps beyond it. Further on we descend steeply past an old quarry - the path is obvious but in places needs a little care as there are steep drops to the right. We soon reach the footbridge over the Don, cross a meadow and climb a few more steps to reach Old Mill Lane.

From here on all is easy. The road goes over a small hill, and just beyond the old railway bridge a surfaced path takes us down to the old railway, now the popular TransPennine trail, where there are usually plenty of walkers and cyclists at weekends, and maybe the odd horse rider. The track is tarmacked, but there is a section either side of the old rail junction where a muddy path along the old track bed offers some relief from the hard surface. We follow the track most of the way to Penistone station, which is signposted and visible to the right.

A pleasant walk that myself and a couple of colleagues followed for an away day having downloaded the gpx file to our phones.
The first couple of miles are a flat walk along the trans pennine trail taking in pleasant countryside views. As it was a Thursday in mid-April the trail was quiet with a just the odd passer-by and cyclist.
After you leave the trail, there's a short walk through some very picturesque countryside before a steady climb up a hill to the communication tower. This climb was very manageable but did get the heart rate up. At the top of the hill where the communication tower is situated there was some lovely highland cows that we did have to be in quite close proximity to. Not a problem for us but something to be aware of. From here you get an excellent view of Stocksbridge.
We then headed down the hill towards the town, with the descent on the steeper side compared to the other side of the hill we'd just walked up. We found a route through the gauze bushes keeping slightly left and made our way into the town for some refreshments. After lunch we decided to follow the same route back to our starting point in Penistone.
Overall a nice, relatively flat walk along well signposted footpaths.

This route takes the direct path onto the Trans Pennine Trail so stock up because there is nothing along the way. It’s an easy walk along the trail for a good two miles passing the site of the engine turntable early on and later the crossing keepers house at Blackmoor Crossing. The route was busy with walkers, most had a dog, child or both but not a single bike to be seen.

Approaching our leaving point we cross a tall viaduct where there is no vertical link to the footpath that passes underneath so we leave the trail and take to Old Mill Lane. While researching the viaduct name I discovered “Barnsley Council sign-boards call this Romticle Viaduct, local newspapers call it Rumtickle Viaduct and the LNER plans from the 1940s call it Romptickle Viaduct.“ Old OS maps show Rumtickle so that’s my choice.

The lane is very quiet, I saw no traffic, so it offers a pleasant route leading to a path across a narrow meadow with a footbridge over the fresh looking River Don. There is then a good climb to Hunshelf Hall, here a stand of Eucalyptus trees were an unexpected find in Yorkshire especially in such an exposed location.

The climb continues, now on road, to Hill Top Farm but not quite the hill top. A footpath through the farm leads up to another stand, this time communication masts. From here we can look over the whole of Stocksbridge with the steel works filling the valley bottom and housing climbing the hillside.

The path down started well along a fence line but gorse obstructed a direct route as shown on the map so it was a twist and turn looking for accessible gaps before locating a signed stile at the crossing track. After that challenge it’s easy going across pasture then excellent steps for a crossing of the bypass which needs care but sight lines are good.

A path which would make an excellent ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ location leads down to another track where the Summer Wine feel continues to the road. A short walk along the main road takes us to the meeting place.

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