About the reserve

A gateway to a wilder world

You're barely out of Barnsley town centre before you reach the gateway into the Upper Dearne Valley and step out into an extensive wetland oasis. 

Following the course of the old canal, you'll get great views over the valley's cut-off meanders, swamps and sprawling reedbeds. The canal bed is dry at first as you head west from the car park, where you'll see crack willow growing. This soon gives way to a wetter marsh, then the water opens up, providing an excellent habitat for amphibians, including great crested newts.

Stop to admire the interesting plants that grow here, especially the only population of frogbit in the Barnsley area. Frogbit floats on the water's surface, looking like a small water lily, with sweet, three-petalled white flowers that bloom in July and August.

Winter can be a great time to look for some of the more unusual bird species that sometimes visit the marsh, including jack snipe and water pipet, with raptors like peregrines and merlins hunting for prey.

Life over the hedge

To the south of the site, bee orchids bloom in the summer in the open grassland. To the north, the longest continuous hedgerow in Barnsley provides food and shelter for flocks of birds that include rare willow tits, thrushes and bullfinches.

The Trust is working on the site to create a better habitat for willow tits to colonise, by creating an open canopy in the young woodland that grows alongside the canal.