Graves Park

Car Parks

There are two car parks for Graves Park, one near the Animal Farm (S8 8JU Bunting Nook, charges apply) and one at the bottom end (S8 8GJ Charles Ashmore Road, free, but do check). Both these car parks are fairly big, but this park does get extremely busy during weekends and school holidays as well as any hot day so do be prepared. There is parking available around the park but may require a short walk to the park. Although Graves Park is located inside Sheffield, because of it's location it can take a while to get there during busy traffic periods, so I'd recommend planning around high traffic hours. When we visited last it did feel like it took longer to get here then it did some of the walks on the Parkway due to traffic and having to drive through the city centre. 

  

What's on offer?

• Animal farm
• Lakes (only middle lake available for dog swimming) 
• Cafe
• Free Fishing (anglers still need a current EA rod licence)
• Two children's playground 
• Land train (weekends and school holidays around the ponds and cafe)

Graves Park is the city's largest park (87 acres), located in Woodseats just off Chesterfield Road South. We prefer to visit this park when it's raining or miserable weather as otherwise it is overrun with kids and visitors, as the park is very well known, but it is a lovely park so who can blame them! It often has fun fairs and events so it is worth checking that the main fields will be empty, although there is a lot of space so you should be able to cut your walk slightly to avoid these. However in miserable weather you only really come across other dog walkers and the occasional family, so we prefer to visit then. One of the main reasons this park is so popular is because of the Animal Farm, which is located at the top end of the park near the cafe.

We always park on the bottom end of the park on Charles Ashmore Road, as the parking is free. We then head towards the right as you look up at the main field and go round the park anti-clockwise. At first there are two huge fields where Watson and Izzy love to stretch their legs and let out their energy. In Izzy's case, due to always going in wet weather, she will also find a nice muddy spot to roll in.

Do be prepared, if like us, you decide to go on a wet day as the fields do get very muddy and so will you and your dog! Towels are a must for this walk. As you get to the top of the field on the right, there is a path that goes upwards and a path that goes to the right. The right path will lead you out of the park, and the path that goes up will take you to a dead end, so continue around the field to your left. As you go a bit further there will be another path that leads upwards, this will take you closer to the Animal Farm, and the fields either side of you will contain animals. They contained cows and sheep when we visited, and as you can see the fences do have quite large gaps in them, so if you own a small dog, now might be the time to lead them. Watson is only just too big to fit in these gaps, and Izzy has no chance. But if your dog, large or small, has the tendency to chase livestock, please ensure you keep them on a lead, or continue on the path along the field to avoid the animals. On our first visit we decided to take the dogs up to see them, this time we put them on a lead as we didn't know how Izzy would react to the animals having never seen them before, but the second time we didn't, as neither Watson nor Izzy would bug the animals and were controllable around them, so for now we kept them off the lead. Both were curious, but not aggressive or tormenting toward the animals, and although the cows seemed intrigued, most of them just ignored or moved away if they were not interested.

After seeing the cows, we carried on around the bend. This is when you come to the lakes. Not all these lakes are dog friendly, only the middle. The others are fenced off, so it is obvious which your dog is allowed in. Izzy obviously has a quick dip, theres no stopping the girl, but it is quite handy after having a run (and roll) on the muddy field. There are plenty of swans, geese and ducks around, so again, if your dog has a tendency to chase them, please keep them on a lead. 

The top lake is fenced off with other birds, again our dogs were just curious and didnt harm or torment the animals, so just know your own dog and be respectful to the animals homes!

On the other side of the path next to the lake were alpacas, which Izzy was very interested in, and was very surprised that the alpaca was also interested in her! They didn't seem too bothered by the interested dogs, and had a nosey themselves. The sheep in the same field tend to just stay back from the fences.

 

At the top of the path is the Animal Farm, part of this farm is dog friendly (the outside bit), but dogs must be kept on a lead. So we put both dogs on a lead before we went in. Both dogs were interested in the animals, but again, they weren't aggressive or tormenting them, just curious. So if your dog wont take kindly to the animals, I suggest avoiding this part of the park. Dogs aren't allowed past a certain point, so keep a look out for the signs, you'll then come to the Animal Farm car park (charges apply). 

We walked through the car park and back onto the path, alongside the fields toward the cafe and children's playground. The cafe is known for being very good but isn't dog friendly so we haven't been in. The playground is also very good, with a large range of activities for kids so if your bringing them it's a good place to stop to keep them interested in the walk. Dogs can't come in the playground but you can see clearly all around. Continuing down past the playground, you come to a wooded area, we took a right a bit further down here and headed through the woodland which eventually brought us back to the car park. The path is the wooded areas is not kept very well and there is a sharpe downward slant towards a stream so be careful, we wouldn't advise this for pushchairs/young children/anyone who may trip! Like most parks, the routes are pretty straight forward and you can make the walk as short or as long as you like. This is a dirty walk in wet weather, so we do suggest towels and wellies. Taking this route took us about an hour and a half, give or take. We have met a lot of other dog walkers in Graves Park, including other Boston Terrier owners! As well as many other breeds, so we highly recommend coming here in wet weather just to meet some local dog owners! It definitely makes the walk when you get chatting to other dog owners, if you're anything like us.