Devil's Elbow Round Walk

This walk takes about an hour and a half. There are numerous round walks on Blacka Moor. This is one of the best. It starts at Devil's Elbow where cars can be parked on the far side of Hathersage Road. The bend here used to be much more severe before Highways Department changed things, but the name Devil's Elbow has stuck.

The walk goes straight down the hill following the sign to Shorts Lane through the birch wood. This is delightful on a sunny day with the dappled light coming through the trees.



Towards the bottom the route (a bridleway) gets very wet and muddy in winter, but stands up pretty well in summer.


This spot can become a quagmire. The best way of treating it is not some expensive surface treatment. This would not work. An on-site worker should come around when it gets wet and throw down some bracken litter of which there is plenty around, to soak up the wetness.
Over the stepping stones and on up the path eventually getting to the new cattle gate and barbed wire (ugh!). The next section is unpleasant underfoot because of several failed attempts to resurface the bridleway leaving areas of brick rubble. Emerging from the trees take the path on the left to the nearby summit of Lenny Hill and admire the view.
From Lenny Hill the route goes to the left (north east) and from here follows the perimeter of Blacka Moor, keeping close to the fence. There is a good variety of young trees around here including plenty of oak and even apple.



Looking over the fence the new building can be seen taking shape. Perhaps a flat roof is not intended here, but it will need to be a magnificent piece of architecture to justify the huge scale and visual impact - something like Chatsworth perhaps?





Looking back the way we have just walked towards Lenny Hill

The path slopes down to the river quite steeply close to Shorts Lane. This is crossed and then the route climbs yet again through the trees - many of them elder. There follows a stretch through gorse alongside some old and one or two newer badger sets. This is where shorts wearers begin to regret they did not wear long trousers.
Eventually the path opens out at the Stone Seat offering good protection from east and north winds. Here unpack your refreshments and admire the birds flying above the woodland below your vantage point. In spring and early summer this is a fine place to listen to blackbirds singing. Any sunny day gives fine views of the green belt beyond Totley.



Deer can sometimes be seen in the fields around here and the very lucky may even catch a site of stags running through the woods on returning to the lay by.
Did anyone enjoy that?