The Babbling Brook: Wyming Brook Nature Reserve, Sheffield, UK

We visited the very beautiful Wyming Brook Nature Reserve in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. According to the Woodland Trust, in medieval times it used to be a place where the nobility went hunting and hawking.

The information sign at the beginning of our walk states that the area is now thankfully, a nature reserve, cared for by 'The Wildlife Trust for Sheffield and Rotherham'. No hunting allowed!

After parking up, we made our way down to the river, tentatively walking over a few stepping stones across the water. I didn’t realise at this point that there would be many more stones and rocks to get over!

We've never been here before so didn’t quite know what to expect, but it turned out to be a little gem of a place!

It was a little tricky underfoot as we had to negotiate mossy stones, rocks, tree roots, that on a cold, rainy day would have been a bit of a problem. However, today the weather was quite mild, so it wasn't too bad but I can imagine it to be much worse in winter.

Even though the location is near the city, we could have been anywhere. You have a sense of being out in the wilderness, miles from nowhere. It was an excellent location for dog walkers, hikers and people who are into photography, as the place is a little paradise.

We crossed a few wooden bridges and even though we saw several dog walkers, it wasn't thronged with people and everyone was quite happy to stop and chat.

We continued to follow the footpath down river, forever looking back and admiring all the lovely waterfalls. It truly was a beautiful babbling brook.

Being surrounded by greenery, it was nice to see the fly agaric with its bright red cap and white spots. At the bottom of the river, we sat down on a wooden bench. I reckon the planners knew people would need a sit down after getting down the slippy obstacle course in one piece!

After a short breather, we carried on, taking a left hand turn and then proceeded to take a steady walk up the hill. Normally, I don't like hills but this was quite a gentle ascent. It was so much easier than I thought.

As we got higher, the scenery was still lovely as we looked down into the woods. We heard a buzzard and a jay in the wood, but sadly, couldn't spot them.

I loved the way they had finished this stone wall off. It was quite eye catching.

We saw a lot of exposed tree roots. It's amazing how trees manage to find a way of hanging in there.

After finally arriving back at the car, we spotted a lovely pheasant in the car park. It was a nice ending to a beautiful walk and good to get a bit of exercise under our belts.