Grenoside/Wharncliffe Woods

What does this walk offer?

• Small bits of water
• Mud
• Flat terrain (although hilly)
• Mixed terrain
• Woodland
• *Bike hazard*

Where is it?

Grenoside Woods is located up past Grenoside Crematorium, off Penistone road. 

The car park is situated on Woodhead Road, just off Penistone Road/Main Street/Halifax Road. 

Postcode for car park: S35 8RS

Screenshot of Google Street View

Grenoside/Wharncliffe Wood (Greno Woods) is most popular for mountain biking and is often used for events such as Steel City Downhill (SCDH). During sunny weather, and mostly at the weekend, this walk can be very congested with mountain bikers for such events, or just leisure, so if your dog (like Izzy) has an issue with bike chasing, I wouldn't recommend this walk on a busy day.

At the beginning of the walk, in the car park, there are start of trails located in the car park, or across the main road. I asked a woman walking her dog near the car park which she thought was the best route to go for dogs. She suggested the route leading from the car park, as it's longer, and "a much better walk". She suggested we took the main path and when we got to a crossroads, to go right, until we wanted to come back up, then there'd be the option of coming back on ourselves, or to cut through another route and back up that way.

So, having never been here before, we went the route she suggested. There is a map on a billboard across the road, with suggested routes for walkers, and for bikes. So if you want to avoid the bikes, avoid the blue routes. The routes are colour coded and signposted around the walk at crossroads or turns, to indicate which route it is for. It's handy to take a photo of this map, as this is a big woods. I also found google maps helped as it has the paths marked out on there too, although not colour coded.

Izzy had recently hurt her paw, so the idea of this walk was that there wasn't much water, and had gravelled footpaths, so in theory, she wouldnt get too muddy/wet. This wasnt the case. As soon as we started walking down the main path from the car park, Izzy found some mud at the side of the path and laid in it (typical lab). And then proceeded to do the same at every one we came across, including the bits of water on the way round. Luckily her wound had scabbed over and it didn't do any damage! Phew! So be prepared, if your dog likes mud, there is plenty of it around, so towels are essential (even though towels weren't enough to get it off of her! Hose pipes in car parks, anyone?) 

We did as the woman suggested and took a right when we came to a cross roads. This was at the first cross roads:

We then followed the path round until there was another path right or forward, and we took the right. This is where we took this photo:

We then continued onward until we came to another crossroads, there was a bench here and with it being a hot day we decided to have a break and a drink. It'd be a nice walk to take a picnic to on a nice day. Be prepared and take some water as you can make this walk as long as you like and if it's a nice day it's easy to get carried away! 

All the paths are very straight until you have to walk back up through the woods so you can see clearly who is walking towards you, great if your dog is nervous/likes to run up to everyone (like Watson does!). 

Photo taken from the bench, we followed the route directly ahead in this photo.

This is when we took the route back, and headed left and carried on forward. Eventually we came to a side route(straight forward) that looked off track which seemed to cut up through the middle, or on track that seemed to go left and back round, the route straight forward is the shortcut route that the woman in the car park suggested. We decided to take the shortcut as time was getting on, this wasn't an easy shortcut mind, as it was quite clear mountain bikers used this route as we had to watch our footing, and was all uphill but this did eventually bring us back up to the main path we'd started down from the car park. It's worth noting that it is downhill on the way in, but uphill on the way back (so be prepared! I wish we'd have saved our drinks!), and we didn't see any bikers apart from one coming in as we were going out, and three or four in the car park. I would think on weekends it can be very busy with bikers but in the week from what we saw this was minimal. We went around 11am-12pm, and finished around 3-4pm on a Wednesday.

After the walk we decided to try out one of the many pubs you pass on the drive up, the closest is The Old Red Lion -

The Old Red Lion

210 Main Street

S35 8PR

Opening times:

Mon-Thurs 12:00-23:00

Fri-Sat 12:00-23:30

Sun 12:00-22:30

Facilities

• Toilet
• Car Park
• Outdoor seating 

We parked up and one of us went inside to check the dog friendly areas, all outside seating (including on the front near the road and entrance) is dog friendly as well as the paved area inside the pub. We sat in the back beer garden as it was empty and meant Watson could be off the lead (in a pub he tends to just sit staring at you under the table in the hope of scraps). We ordered some drinks and decided to have a look at the menu, in the weekdays food is served until 3pm. 

The owner came out to introduce himself to the dogs with some biscuits which were greatly received by Watson. Izzy can be a little nervous around new people and had a little bark but he didn't mind and seemed to keep his distance after he realised she wasn't comfortable with the attention. We ordered a cheese sandwich and chips and a cheeseburger and chips, both of which were good and all home made. The food came to £11.50 in total. All in all we'd go back. I think we may try sitting inside come winter time and hopefully taste the Sunday lunch which is meant to be good. 

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