If you’re looking for an inner city walk that’s well worth exploring, this one could be something you’ll really enjoy.
There is just something magical about walking along rivers, seeing waterfalls and stepping on stones to cross the river, and what makes this even more unique is that it’s in a city centre.
On the outskirts on Sheffield City in the heart of Yorkshire lies the magical Rivelin Valley Trail.
But what makes it so nice?
I took the family to explore this trail and wanted to share this experience with you.
The Trail
At the start of the trail, there is a nice little café and play park (this was currently locked due to COVID).
While I couldn’t find any official parking, there are plenty of side streets to park on. So parking was free.
No map reading is needed, as the trail is well sign-posted and easy to follow.
The Length
As my youngest is only 2, we didn’t even attempt to do the full route.
I think the full route is around 10 km so not a long route, but a nice route you can do at a steady stroll.
We did around 3 miles in total.
The Paths
As you can see from the images, the paths are either hard gravel or mud.
It had rain recently when we went so was a few muddy puddles, not that kids minded, but you might want to take wellies.
An Abundance Of Excitement
This isn’t a boring walk – far from it; there is plenty to see and do.
As you start, there is a great park with the river sitting on your left hand side.
Once you go over the first bridge then you have a choice of going on either side of the river.
We took the right-hand side and this was a smart move.
Within minutes we had hit a lower section which had a huge rock in the middle with a wooden chair and a few stepping stones across.
After a few minutes of me and the kids stepping on the stones, we carried on walking.
This trail is an instragammer’s dream; as you walk along the river there are countless waterfalls to explore and photograph.
There are also some lovely little bridges along to cross, if you want to switch sides.
There are picnic areas along the route too with plenty of seating areas to take rests if needed.
Most of the route is ‘in the woods’ so is covered, so even if its sunny it doesn’t mean it will be warm.
Hidden features
Keep your eyes peeled as you walk alone, there are plenty of ancient ruins and other hidden elements along the route.
You do need to cross a road, which was fairly quiet on the Sunday, but it’s worth me noting.
Just Be Careful
This probably would only happen to me, but I wanted to share the story to avoid anyone else doing what I did.
My oldest had no problem following me to the rock and going across the rocks.
My middle child needed a bit more guidance, but he did it on his own.
I had to carry my youngest, but was fine – I had just been across so knew I could carry her easily.
So, I did.
No issues and she loved it.
Then I realised behind the big rock there were some more little rocks to walk along so I carried her and went.
On one of the rocks I lost my footing and slipped.
I had a split second choice, stop myself and drop my daughter or hold her and go down without stopping myself.
So yeah, I held her tight and banged up my leg.
As you can see from the image below, it did hurt quite a bit.
Like I said, it probably could only happen to me.
And it certainly didn’t put a dampener on this great walk.
Although I’ll be more careful if and when I visit again!
