Essential Information
Me and my friend have decided to start each week with a walk to somewhere new! I had heard about the fairy doors at Brockadale Nature Reserve in the summer so we went to explore!
It’s a circular walk, suitable for little legs but not buggies due to small kissing gates!! We even had to do some manoeuvres to get through one of them with the slings on!!
The fairy doors are out of the car park and turning left along the top of the limestone cliff which is the way we went but if you’re looking to encourage a little one to keep going maybe go right to save the fairy doors for the end of the walk!
If you do go clockwise, the fairy doors just appear on the trees on the left of the path. There are quite a few and as you’ll see from the photos, in great condition! Some of them are in between small trees so the kids can go and search for them without being too far away from you!
After the fairy doors, the path comes out on the outskirts of Kirk Smeaton. Take a right down and over the small bridge and back up the hill towards the church. I loved this view, it was like something from movie scene! On the right before the church you’ll see a stone stile and the footpath heads up towards the church. At the top by the church are two very tight kissing gates, the ones mentioned above!!
You’ll come out into the village on the road by the Shoulder of Mutton pub, head along the road and on the bend head right down the footpath. Just keep following this footpath back through the valley.
At a gate you can head further on into the nature reserve or turn right over the stream. We went right and next to the stream was mud but I’m sure it’d be a lovely picnic spot in the summer!!
Head up the hill and you finish back on the path to the car park. You can make the walk longer by heading further up into the nature reserve where there are further paths and places to explore!
For more ideas of family friendly walks around Wakefield click here