Thurgoland Tunnel

I’ve never walked through the tunnel before, so I’d asked Ann R, who is the organiser of the Thurgoland Boundary Walk, to walk it with me yesterday.  Some people use it as an alternative to the final stretch along Old Mill Lane and as I hate that stretch of the walk myself I was interested to see how the alternative could be accessed and what it was like.  The tunnel is quite long and fortunately lit.  It’s now part of the trans-pennine cycle route, though was originally one of the rail routes from Sheffield to Manchester until it was closed in the 60’s (I think).  Such a terrible mistake!  It would be such a valuable addition for cross Pennine travel today.

Oh and we rescued a lamb - well really it rescued itself in an attempt to get back to its mother and avoid me,  it managed to scramble back through the wire fence.

And more importantly, we found a lot more `Milk Maids’ growing at the top of the hill (I only spotted two the other day), so plenty of plants for the Orange-tip butterflies to lay eggs (and I don’t have to instigate an expedition to establish new plug plants). 

And finally, it was a beautiful spring morning and a lovely time to be walking.  There were quite a few Small Tortoiseshells on the wing and a couple of Orange-tip butterflies.

And finally, finally - I think I’m up to date now.  Tai Chi this morning.