Fields, Woods and Water - Anston to the Chesterfield Canal
6 miles | fields, woods and canals | overcast with some sunshine | homemade provisions
The walk begins plainly enough. A parish hall car park, a recreation ground, and then a path leading out into open countryside. Fields lie recently harvested, the sky wide and unsettled, and the landscape already beginning to change underfoot.
Stubble fields near Anston
Stubble fields near Anston
There’s an ease to walking here. The land rises and falls without drama, leaving space to notice the textures of the route, stubble underfoot, hedgerows edging the fields, woodland waiting ahead.
The character shifts as we enter Anston Stones Woods. The space tightens, light filters through leaves, and limestone rock faces draw closer to the path. Roots twist and grip the earth, shallow caves appear along the gorge, and the woods feel shaped by something older than the trees themselves.
This is a place formed during the Ice Age. The woods have yielded remarkable discoveries, including hyena bones in Dead Man’s Cave dating back around 125,000 years. Today, that history lies beneath birdsong, shade, and the steady pace of walking.
Beyond the gorge, the route opens again. Meadows and woodland alternate, Anston Brook slips beneath our crossing, and the modern world edges back in near the A57. Fine houses border Lindrick Golf Course, their order contrasting with the ground we’ve just left.
Farmland carries us onward to the linear presence of the Chesterfield Canal. The water is still, green with duckweed, shaded by trees leaning over the towpath. It’s a place that naturally slows the pace or requires a break.
Following the towpath along the Cuckoo Way, we pass the Triple Lock staircase - solid, purposeful, and settled into the landscape. What was once built for movement and trade now feels part of the scenery.
The loop closes through South Anston and back across the A57 to where we began. Nothing marks the ending dramatically, just the sense of having stepped away from the everyday for a while.