Adventures around Sheffieldwith PlusBus
There are so many adventures within reach of a Sheffield PlusBus ticket, it would take years to explore them all. A Sheffield PlusBus ticket gives you unlimited travel on trams and buses across the whole South Yorkshire zone including all of Sheffield itself. Spend a great day exploring without breaking the bank. Sheffield has some excellent free museums, gardens and green spaces, all easy to reach by bus. Here are just a few of the hundreds of possibilities.
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1. Kelham Island Museum
Add Sheffield PlusBus to your train ticket and South Yorkshire is your oyster. Trains arrive at Sheffield station from Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, London and Norwich. There area direct trains from London’s St Pancras station on East Midlands Railways. To get a sense of Sheffield’s relatively recent past, head to the dynamic Kelham Island Museum, dedicated to the city’s industrial and steelmaking history with interactive galleries and huge working steam engines. Before you get to the door of the museum, you’ll see a towering Bessemer converter. This machine was crucial to the mass production of steel, taking the impurities out of pig iron to make it into the metal that made Sheffield famous. The city’s cutlery is first mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Sheffield was once the world’s steel-making capital.
- From Paternoster Row outside the station, you can catch bus 95 to Kelham Island every frequently. Alternatively, stroll up leafy pedestrianised Howard Street to the interesting Millennium Gallery, Winter Garden and Graves Gallery (Sheffield’s art collection). These are all a fun, five-minute walk from Sheffield Railway Station. Cross the road and head up pedestrianised, studenty Howard Street, past the half-timbered pub, huge murals and mosaic water feature.
- From Arundel Gate bus stop nearby, bus 7, bus 83 and others head towards Kelham Island. Get off at the bus stop called Nursery Street/Spitalfield and walk a few steps beside the river. Cross the bridge, turn right and follow the River Don Trail. You’ll see the museum’s tall brick chimney ahead of you.
- The nearby Grind café is an excellent place for brunch. In fact, the whole island is packed with foodie possibilities. Summer 2021 saw the launch of a new food-focussed boutique hotel near the Michelin-listed Jöro, part of Kelham Island’s Krynkl shipping container complex.
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2. Walk through Rivelin Glen
With its wooded hills, hidden valleys, and the neighbouring Peak District, Sheffield has more than its share of lovely countryside. One of the most popular green walks in the city itself is the three-mile amble along beautiful Rivelin Glen with its stepping stones, waterfalls and wooded waterside walkways.
- Catch buses 81 or 82 from Arundel Gate near the station or from Moorfields/Allen Street, very close to Kelham Island. The bus takes you through Hillsborough and other interesting parts of the city. Get off near Malin Bridge at Holme Lane/Stannington Road, and turn left over the River Loxley, past steps down to an island. You will very soon reach the Rivelin Glen walk on your left near a sign saying Easy Going Trail
- Alternatively, you could stay on the bus to Liberty Hill/Liberty Road and walk downhill to join the glen further along and have a shorter walk.
- The trail mostly follows the river with variations along the way, often with water on both sides. You’ll pass an 18th-century packhorse bridge and the remains of dozens of 20 waterwheels and mill dams that once played a key role in Sheffield’s steel and cutlery industries.
- Look out for birds like long-tailed tits and treecreepers, and butterflies including speckled wood and comma. There are bluebells in spring, fabulous colours in the autumn and shady trees for summer.
- After a meandering three miles beside the water, head left across Manchester Road and follow the little apple signs to the Apple Shack, a cabin with a Peak District view that serves drinks and cakes on weekends and Mondays. Bus 256, 257 or 258 run hourly from nearby Manchester Road/Blackbrook Bridge back towards central Sheffield.
- If you’re up for more walking (a steep mile or so), you can turn right out of the Apple Shack’s garden and climb up through Blackbrook Wood. Turn left at the top and then right to walk straight over the golf course and find a bus stop opposite the Shiny Sheff pub. Bus 51 runs from here frequently towards Sheffield centre. If you get off at Whitham Road/ Turners Lane, you can stroll ten minutes downhill to visit Sheffield’s gem of a botanical garden.
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3. Botanical Gardens
There are eighteen different areas in the Sheffield Botanical Gardens. You can stroll through a Victorian rose garden or wind through sunny Mediterranean flowers. Explore the pungent jungle in the greenhouse pavilions with palms and creepers, cacti and banana plants from around the world. Or wander through prairie grass and Himalayan rhododendrons. The gardens are open all day.
- If you’re coming straight from the station, lots of regular buses stop nearby. These include bus 120, which runs frequently from Flat Street near the station.
- Time for a tea or beer break? The Curator’s House café is just by the entrance you came in through. But you can also exit from the bottom end of the garden onto Eccleshall Road, stroll left along it and right down Hickmott Road into Sharrow Vale, packed with independent shops and cafés.
- Here you’ll find everything from jewellers to fishmongers, Spanish tapas to Vietnamese. There’s a choice of beer gardens at the Lescar, a classic local pub with a cool interior and good food.
- When you want to head back to the station, there are several buses that run along Eccleshall Road (back near the botanical garden), including buses 81 and 82. The bus stop is just five minutes round the corner and the bus takes about fifteen minutes so there’s time to enjoy the evening sun or warm up in a candlelit bar.
Find more ideas in our car-free guide to Sheffield.
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