This was a lovely walk from Creswell Crags (which I’m very fond of) to the centre of Worksop, going through the Welbeck Estate. It’s a mixture of forest, farmland and some beautiful wild sections.
Creswell Crags is easily accessible from the M1 Motorway at Junction 30 – follow the signs for ‘Creswell Crags’ and you can’t go wrong. Creswell Railway station if you fancy the train or the no. 77 bus between Chesterfield and Worksop.
Try the Traveline website for further information about bus and train options.
I got there fairly early as the forecast was very favourable. We’ve had utterly miserable weather with rain, strong winds and even thunder and lightning the past couple of weeks. Those slate grey skies are not a delight!
At 6am the sun is just coming up and it’s a treat to see the sun move so quickly into the heavens…
Then it’s out of the Crags and heading east.
Then it’s over the A60 (take care as it can be busy!) and you’re on the Robin Hood Way. It’s quite a confusing and winding route with many offshoots, so take a look here for ideas to walk it.
Still heading east with the main estate house to the south:
It’s a wonderfully peaceful section with no-one about. remember that there’s a lot of restrictions where you can walk and the Welbeck Estate owners provide lots of helpful red signs to keep you where they want you to be.
Then it’s out into farmland with wonderful ‘big skies’:
And then into a section of managed forest… with one last look back at the skies:
The lake is beautiful and full of birds, geese especially making their prescence known.
The lake area also gives views of the sky. I’m a big fan of clouds and I thought the fomrations were beautiful!
The video below probably does it more justice?
And then onwards easterly…
I think this might be an old gatehouse with the cottage next to it for the gatekeeper? Apologies for my shadow but you can’t do much about that with a low sun in the sky.
A nice bit of forest but apart from the bluebells, there’s not a lot of nature here – it’s all pine trees for logging, I think? Very sterile and quiet – no bird song at all.
It’s quite a relief to be in open country again. There were skylarks everywhere singing and flying about. Othere birds too but they much to quick for me to take pictures. I enjoyed the riot of different birdson though.
This was another area with ‘big skies’ and I loved all the difefrent sorts of cluds forming from the west:
The last section wasn’t so nice. You have to cross the busy A57 road southwest of Worsop. Fortunately it’s not a dual carriageway and there were gaps in traffic. Then you run for it!
I’m not so keen on these huge lorries, to be honest?
Once over the road, you’re into urban Worksop. There the beautiful countryside and vistas end and it’s housing and finally the town centre. I caught the no. 77 from Worksop bus station to Creswell and then walked back to Creswell Crags.
Try the Traveline website for further information about bus and train options.
But not before ruining all my healthy walking with a large fried breakfast with black pudding and lots of coffee:
