Trans pennine ale

Hello,

I planned a walk cum pub crawl around the route of the Transpennine trail, but so taxing was the trudge through miles of black mud that we scarcely touched any of the proposed pub stops. However, we did reach a few pubs, and the details are below.

Starting at Penistone, the trail is quite ;clear and we embarked in strong wind and some sunshine. Oxspring was a bit tricky as many versions of the trail seem to appear at once, but we made it out and as far as the Travellers om the outskirts. Alas, being Sunday and 11.25 it was shut so we ploughed on, trying to decipher the woeful signage that sent us either miles in the completely wrong direction or potentially back on ourselves missing our first stop.

Luckily, walking companion Christingfer had brought along a handy googlemap app on his phone so we were able to find a road to take us towards Silkstone.

We picked up the trail half a mile from the village and decided not to venture to the once GBG listed Ring O Bells, and ploughed on instead to Worsbrough. The trail in this section is framed by interesting countryside, and we did think briefly of alighting at Stainborough for the pub marked on the map, but ploughed on.

At Worsborough we had our first pub stop at the Button Mill Inn, a large pub opposite the Worsborough country park car park, serving food and one real ale, Black Sheep bitter. The beer was OK, and went down fast, but we were off all too soon heading for our intended finishing point in Darfield.

Alas, the cloying boot ruining sludge and puddles of the trail meant we were knackered by Wombwell, so we did not head for Darfield, and arrived back in Sheffield in the evening. We took the opportunity to visit the Sheffield Tap and I had a few pints of the delicious but enthusiastically priced Highland Dark Munro as well as the Strong Ox 5.6% lager from Bernard and a half of the Orkney Porter at 9.0%.

I reckon this is probably different to the Orkney brewery operation but a welcome change irrespective of that and all good quality beers.

If you try the walk yourself then I think the Station at Darfield and, albeit Greedy King only, the Ring O bells would be worth a look, maybe also the keel or similar in Barnsley. I am paying today with aches and pains but the Tap beers were worth the effort.

Wee Beefy.