on saturday I started out at langsett barn car park, and on the OS map on streemap.co.uk it seems to indicate that there is a path (the one marked out by little diamond shapes) all the way from there to wharncliffe, so I was intending to ride on that and then ride south through wharncliffe to sheffield.
However the reality was that this path didn't seem to exist, certainly for the length the map claims - there was a bit of a path next to the road (north of it) for a little way but it petered out near some industrial complex with a grassy bank next to it.
I rode on the A616 to where the A629 crosses it and then went down woodhead road, and went down there till i saw a TPT sign pointing into some woods, which was a nice little woodland trail but very short and it wasn't wharncliffe.
was a very nice ride on sat but a bit too much road work for a mtb ride.
So was just wondering does anybody know the best route from langsett, to, and through, wharncliffe? (and then back over cutgate?)
The short answer is that there isnt a route without use of the A616. The triangles you saw would have been the Barnsley boundary walk which runs past Bridon Wire (Industrial complex in the woods) and Hunshelf bank (Ridge line above A616)and this is not particularly rideable. If you were looking for the TPT then that heads towards Penistone at the bottom of Wharncliffe Crags near Deepcar on the old railway line.
If you wanted to avoid the A616 but don't mind a bit of road work then through Midhopestones and past Underbank Res before headed through Stocksbridge and into Wharncliffe Woods at Station Road Deepcar.
hmm, thanks - i'm more bothered about INcluding wharncliffe than EXcluding the 616...
although i spotted a road called 'plank gate' which seems to run all through wharncliffe, do you know that? any good bits to look out for going that way - what's wharncliffe like nowadays for XC? i heard they were doing developments on a 'red' loop which is more my cup of tea than extreme uber-downhill.
Part of the TPT runs through the bottom of wharncliffe so you could go along that then loop up and through the top, back down to the TPT then home again.
you'll never find your way round the wharncliffe route without a guide or a bloody good map
There are a couple of choices as I see it, none of them great:
1. Back road up to Upper Midhope, back road to Midhopestones, cheeky footpath along underbank reservoir, main road through Stocksbridge and either towards Wharncliffe side on the main road and in at the bottom or towards Wortley on a back road. There are plenty of interesting ways in as you head up to Wortley but you need to know where they are (i.e. you missed them!).
2. Cross across the A616 and use a bridleway and a back road up to the top of the hill. Drop over the other side of the hill to pick up the TPT and zapp along that to the woods.
There's lots of good riding to get you from Thurgoland area to Wharncliffe proper but its all local knowledge I'm afraid, quite a bit on (lightly traffic-ed) footpaths too.
If you look to your right as you ride along Plank Gate you should see a lot of the DH exits. The red route is best picked up from the main CP towards Grenoside, but if you keep following fireroads from Plankgate that head upwards you should eventually get there.
Best way though would be to get a local to show you around though.
Then there is some awesome stuff all the way into Sheffield that might not quite be legal riding... Check Birley edge out on the OSmap