Wellbeck wander and scurry around Ulley

A number of guests and a greater than usual contingent of ladies swelled the ranks to more than 40 for this walk by the Doncaster Ramblers.
Doncaster Ramblers scurry around UlleyDoncaster Ramblers scurry around Ulley
Doncaster Ramblers scurry around Ulley

After a short, easy car journey we all met up at Ulley Country Park and then we set off in lovely sunshine along the banks of the reservoir, through some beautiful rolling woodland before walking down to the pretty Treeton Dyke where we decided to stop for a drink of coffee.

After this break we then began to make our way along the River Rother keeping our eyes peeled for otters and kingfishers (according to one of our number, Pete) and alongside the site of the Orgreave riots, which is now about to be redeveloped into a huge housing estate.

Doncaster Ramblers at WelbeckDoncaster Ramblers at Welbeck
Doncaster Ramblers at Welbeck
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From here we passed through Treeton, before we walked under the busy M18 and followed the floodbank for a while before arriving at the Sitwell Arms in Whiston for a lunch stop. This is an intriguingly named pub, as most of the outside seating was at an improbable angle.

Suitably refreshed here, it was then a relatively easy three miles walk back towards Ulley Park across open countryside.

Once again thanks, Pete, for arranging and leading this lovely walk which gave us a different view of the countryside just beyond familiar motorway territory. Thanks also to Phil for trustworthy backmarking.

It is at this point that I must say that Doncaster Ramblers is not just a fitness fad.

Doncaster Ramblers scurry around UlleyDoncaster Ramblers scurry around Ulley
Doncaster Ramblers scurry around Ulley
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You can’t open a paper or turn on the TV these days without being told to get fit and how it’s done. Even Hippocrates was giving advice 2,000 years ago. It’s tough though if you’ve not been active for years or of an age where muscles don’t work like they used to.

We at the Ramblers are not just a fitness fad, we’ve been at it since before 1935, and even then the health benefits of walking were well known. Today we are even more aware that regular exercise, including walking, helps prevent and manage conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, and type two diabetes. It can also strengthen bone and build muscle.

In addition, walking outdoors helps improve mood, reducing anxiety and depression and, if you’re in a group like ours, prevents isolation. Rambling is all round great for well being, so why not give is a try?

After meeting in the car park at Notwell Garden Centre, (well worth a visit. Apart from the massive garden centre, there is a lovely café, also an art gallery and farm shop). A total of 35 of us set off on this lovely winter walk, enhanced by the light peppering the snow petals throughout the day. The walk was a pleasing mixture of fieldside tracks and quiet lanes which enabled us to make good time. We started by walking through the fascinating limestone gorge of Creswell Crags with its prehistoric cave dwellings (The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves that were occupied during the last ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago. Its caves contain the northernmost cave art in Europe. The evidence of occupation found in the rich series of sediments that accumulated over many thousands of years, is regarded as internationally unique in demonstrating how prehistoric people managed to live at the extreme northernmost limits of their territory during the Late Pleistocene period). After the regulation coffee stop at 11am (outside a very impressive cemetery, even the deceased are posh around here), we resumed our journey along lanes and tracks through rolling farmland towards our lunchtime pub stop in the rather upmarket Greendale Oak in Cuckney. Having emptied our sandwich boxes (and our wallets), we set off for the short three mile journey back to the start alongside the Welbeck Estate with sightings of white deer and black pheasant along the way. What a joy to arrive back relatively free from mud for the first time this year. Thanks Brian, for an ideal seasonal walk and Bob for backmarking.

Doncaster Ramblers at WelbeckDoncaster Ramblers at Welbeck
Doncaster Ramblers at Welbeck
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Doncaster Walking Festival May 26 to June 3 – an outdoor extravaganza for all the family For more information about the Doncaster Ramblers and future activity please visit our Home Page www.doncasterramblers.org.uk website and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/doncasterramblers site.