Walk · South Yorkshire

Trans Pennine Trail: Elsecar to Old Moor

Elsecar · S74 8HJ
N 1 MILE
3MILES
1h 25mON FOOT
25mCLIMB
Linear — plan the returnSHAPE
Off-road 95% 5% shares tarmac with cars
Field & moor path 5%Lane & track 90%Road with traffic 5%

Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill. Off-lead information here is what walkers reported or what signage allows — never our advice. Whether and when a dog is off the lead is the owner’s decision and legal responsibility; keep dogs under control near livestock and follow signs on the day.

Starts at
Elsecar Heritage Centre, Wath Road, Elsecar, Barnsley S74 8HJ S74 8HJ
Finishes at
RSPB Old Moor car park, Old Moor Lane, Broomhill, Barnsley S73 0YFLinear — plan how you get back
Parking
Free car park at Elsecar Heritage Centre, which fills on antiques fair days and event weekends; free parking also at RSPB Old Moor at the far end, open from 09:30 and locked overnight
Directions to the start →

Three miles of the Trans Pennine Trail running alongside the line of the disused Elsecar branch canal from Elsecar Heritage Centre down the Dearne valley to RSPB Old Moor. It passes the site of Hemingfield Colliery, whose engine house is still standing and occasionally open, and comes out at the edge of the Dearne Valley wetlands. The surface is hard and level the whole way, which makes it one of the few genuinely all-weather walks in the borough, and it is shared with cyclists and horses. Walk it one way and come back on the 226 bus, or turn round at Old Moor for a six mile round trip.

THE SMALL PRINTThe Trans Pennine Trail user code states: "Please keep dogs under close control and in sight. It is better to use a short lead, especially on highly populated sections and near farm animals and horses", and asks that you clean up after your dog. This section runs through Barnsley borough, where the borough-wide dog control PSPO applies: faeces removed from public open land immediately, a means of picking up carried, no dogs in fenced children's play areas, a lead in cemeteries, and a lead on request from an authorised officer. Dogs may not go on to the Old Moor reserve itself, only its courtyard and car park.

House rules, decoded

Off-lead allowed
REGION · SOUTH YORKSHIRE
GRID · 53.4948, -1.4193
SOURCE · HTTPS://WWW.TRANSPENNINETRAIL.ORG.UK/WALKERS/USER-CODE/
Also in Elsecar
WAGFINDER No photo yet
Restaurant SOME LIMITS

Brambles Tea Rooms

S74 8HJ
No reviews yet

The second of the two cafes inside Elsecar Heritage Centre on Wath Road, a tea room doing light bites, afternoon tea and cake, open through the middle of the day. Its seating spills out into the cobbled workshop yard, level and enclosed by the old buildings, which is the easiest spot in the village to sit with a dog after a circuit of Elsecar Reservoir or the old canal line. Note that the site asks for dogs to be kept on a lead while drainage works are in progress. The heritage centre's own visitor page states that outside seating is available and dogs are welcome; indoor access is not confirmed, and this is Barnsley Museums' wording rather than the tea room's own.

VERIFIED 30 JUL 2026 VIEW ›
WAGFINDER No photo yet
Attraction SOME LIMITS

Elsecar Heritage Centre

S74 8HJ
No reviews yet

The former ironworks and colliery workshops of the Fitzwilliam estate on Wath Road, now a run of stone buildings round a yard holding antiques units, craft workshops, a heritage railway and the only Newcomen-type engine still in its original place. Admission and parking are both free, so it works as a stop rather than a day out, and the yard is flat setts and tarmac. Dogs are welcome outside and at the outdoor seating of both cafes, The Pantry and Brambles Tea Rooms, and the centre asks that they are kept on a lead. Assistance dogs are welcome in all areas of the buildings; other dogs are not taken inside.

VERIFIED 30 JUL 2026 VIEW ›
WAGFINDER No photo yet
N 176 YD 1.2 MI · LOOP
DOGS WELCOME

Elsecar Park and Reservoir

Elsecar · S74 8ES
No reviews yet
1.2MILES
40mTIME
30mCLIMB
95%OFF-ROAD
Off-lead allowed

A Green Flag park on Armroyd Lane with terraced ornamental gardens dropping to the old canal-feeder reservoir, which is a local nature reserve with a bird hide on its bank. Barnsley Council sets no lead rule here, so the borough dog control PSPO is the whole of the law: clear up at once, carry bags, keep out of the fenced play area. The circuit round the water is level and the climb back through the terraces is the only gradient. Elsecar Heritage Centre and the heritage railway are five minutes away at the bottom of Wentworth Road, so the park and the yard make one outing.

VERIFIED 30 JUL 2026 VIEW WALK ›

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