Distance: just under 9.6 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: easy

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk between Beeston in Nottinghamshire and Ilkeston in Derbyshire. Through the Erewash Valley mostly along the line of the abandoned Nottingham Canal and across Bennerley Viaduct.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Nottingham Canal

Not far from the western edge of Nottingham, on the fringes of the little town of Stapleford, sits an enigmatic stone column.

Known as the Hemlock Stone it is formed from 200 million year old sandstone set down during the Triassic period.

Overlooking the modern A6002 road the Hemlock Stone is traditionally reckoned to have been a site of ancient Celtic ritual, and potentially was revered by even earlier human cultures. In the Middle Ages it remained something of a devotional site, albeit now Christianised, and customs around fire lighting remained active into the Early Modern period and potentially as late as the early 19th Century. Purportedly a fire would be lit on Beltane’s Eve – approximately the 1st May – the beginning of the bright, warm part of the year, and always an important date for working people.  

The fire lighting tradition has been revived from time-to-time for royal jubilees. Indeed, since Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 there has been an annual celebration of the Hemlock Stone and the role that it plays in the area’s identity. Known as the Hemlock Happening, it occurs every June in the little walled garden park just across the A6002 from the stone. 

Stapleford Hill, the name of the rocky sandstone escarpment that the Hemlock Stone sits on, is a prominent local feature. However, it is unknown how the 8.5 metre tall, obelisk-like, Hemlock Stone came to stand proud of it.

In Medieval times there was a local legend that the devil had been angered by the ringing of church bells in Castleton near the centre of the Derbyshire Peak District. At the time Castleton was a major centre in the crucial lead mining industry and despite its remote location, an important local centre. The legend goes that in his rage the devil picked up the Hemlock Stone and threw it 40 miles where it landed just over the county boundary into Nottinghamshire where it stands to this day.

This origin story is somewhat spoiled (supernatural elements aside) by the fact that Castleton lies in a fold between the limestone White Peak and the Pennine gritstone Dark Peak. There is no sandstone anywhere near it.

In the 18th Century the antiquarian William Stuckeley suggested that it might have come about through quarrying on the hill. Later geologists rejected this interpretation, reckoning that the Hemlock Stone was created by the actions of ice flows during the Ice Age. Nowadays however, the consensus appears to be leaning towards William Stuckeley’s interpretation, concluding that the Hemlock Stone was once a larger chunk of rock which was shaped by the action of people quarrying the sandstone on Stapleford Hill into the form that it takes today.

The layers of sandstone at the top of the Hemlock Stone are black with soot from industry in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries. A sign of how solid the upper layer of sandstone is. The base of the pillar is not discoloured rather it is a clean sandstone colour. This is due to the fact that the lower layers are less firmly pressed together and are eroding at a faster rate. 

In time this will cause the Hemlock Stone to break in two and collapse. But despite the weather’s best efforts this is likely to occur thousands of years in the future, meaning that this fascinating rock will continue to be an important local landmark in south west Nottinghamshire for generations to come.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk from Beeston to Ilkeston, primarily along the line of the disused Nottingham Canal, and across Bennerley Viaduct, begins from Beeston Railway Station.

From the eastern end of the platforms there are sets of steps leading up onto a road running into the town centre.

Walk up these steps to the carriageway above.

Once on the road turn left and walk along the road until you come to a crossroads with a small Co-op on your left hand side.

Here use the traffic lights to cross over the road and continue along the road running away from the cross roads more or less straight in front of you.

Continue along this road for some distance.

It is initially residential in character, but you soon reach the edge of Beeston town centre passing an abandoned pub called the White Lion.

Just beyond the pub you cross a main road where the tram runs from central Nottingham.

On the far side continue heading straight past a large, new, slate grey building on the left, and the side of large branches of both TESCO and Sainsbury’s to your right.

At the top of this road you come to a cross road biscetting Beeston’s largely Victorian era high street where there was a market taking place on the day I walked the route.

Continue walking straight ahead down Wollaton Road (which runs north towards the edge of Nottingham in the direction of Wollaton Park).

On your right you pass a large red brick building which is shaped like a former mill or warehouse, now flats.

Shortly after passing this building on your left there is a residential road called Broughton Street running off Wollaton Road.

Cross over the road here – there are some handy traffic lights just up from where you are stood – and head down Broughton Street.

Walk a short distance along Broughton Street.

Presently you reach a t-junction with Bramcote Road, which is on your right.

Turn right here and walk a short distance along Bramcote Road.

Soon there is a junction, amidst an estate of detached and semi-detached inter-war houses. Here the road curves around to the left.

A little further on the road you are walking along reaches a t-junction where it joins another road.

On the far side of the junction there is a driveway running into woodland.

Head across the road here and walk down the driveway into the trees.

After passing the drives for a couple of houses on your right, the drive turns into a footpath.

This footpath runs through a band of trees across a golf course for some distance, It is pretty handy as it makes crossing the golf course easier than is often the case.

Having crossed the golf course you come to a signpost next to a small electricity substation. This points down a track leading to your right.

Turn right here and follow the track for a very short distance until it turns onto a road of suburban houses.

The houses you have walked past so far have been comfortable suburban homes. The houses that you are passing now – not least one clearly recently built – are in a rather different league.

Turn right here and then follow the road as it curves around to the left.

Soon you reach a t-junction where you take the right hand fork.

Then turn left when it comes out onto another road, a few paces later.

Walk up a tree lined road a short distance until it connects with another larger road.

Here on the far side of the road there is another track, next to a 1980s or 1990s vintage house with a brown fence surrounding its garden.

Follow this track for some distance.

Presently it turns into a very quiet suburban road lined with mid-20th Century period bungalows.

Follow this road as it runs downhill.

At the bottom you come out onto a major dual carriageway.

Nottinghamshire County Council have handily put a tall green metal wire fence along the central reservation of the dual carriageway, so you cannot jaywalk it.

However, there are some traffic lights very close to where you have come out next to the road to your left.

Use these traffic lights to cross the dual carriageway.

Then head to your right and walk a short distance until you come to the mouth of a residential road running along the side of a large school’s playing fields.

Turn left along this road and walk up it for some distance.

Presently you come to the end of the road and it turns into a path running into a sandstone cutting lined flanked with trees.

In some places the sandstone has historical graffiti, etched over the course of generations, visible in it.

Follow the path along this cutting for some distance.

After a little way you leave the cutting next to a modern bungalow.

Here keep walking straight ahead past a little metal fence put in place to stop cars and motorbikes.

Continue along a long, straight stretch of path beyond the metal gate heading straight towards woodland in front of you.

Upon entering the woodland, which stands near the boundary between the City of Nottingham Council area, and the rest of Nottinghamshire, you follow the path for a short distance.

Soon you come to a four way junction on the path. Judging by maps this fork stands more or less where the cut of the old Nottingham Canal used to run before it was abandoned around the time of World War II and then filled in.

Here at the junction take the left hand arm of the path, now following the line of the old canal through the woodland.

Continue along the path through the trees. Initially all signs of the canal are imperceptible, until you come to a railway line, which has an inexplicable bridge across a deep looking pool of water. These are the first surviving remnants of the Nottingham Canal that come across.

Carrying on beyond the bridge you walk through the woodland until you reach a ramp leading up to beside the busy A6002. 

Taking care, cross the road here and taking a slightly rightwards turn, head down a flight of steps next to a sign for the Nottingham Canal Nature Reserve, then turn left. 

Walking straight ahead you now follow the line of the canal, clearly obvious to your right as you walk, for the rest of the way as far as Bennerley Viaduct which carries you across the Erewash Valley.

As you walk some stretches of the former canal are still partially in water, other parts are drained, all provide a habitat for wildlife, and a very long, twisty, linear park and mixed use path for humans.   

After a short distance you come to where a garden centre has been constructed across the bed of the old canal.

Here the former canal ditch comes to an end and the path running alongside it turns to the left.

You cross the access road and head up a path leading into a field.

From the top of the slight hill the path climbs there are good views across the Erewash Valley.

Keep following the path as it starts winding down the hill.

After a short distance it takes a hard turn to the right following the line of the hedgerow you have been following.

This leads you around the northern edge of the garden centre.

At the bottom of a slight slope you pass through a gateway into a copse of trees.

A little way ahead of you stands what is unmistakably a canal bridge. It is here that you rejoin the line of the old Nottingham Canal.

Head through this gate and continue along the path running beside the former canal channel, now seriously overgrown with trees and shrubbery.

The canal approaches the M1 motorway which was constructed across the line of the old canal in the 1960s.

Here you take a detour to the right.

This leads down onto a road which runs beneath the motorway.

Having passed beneath the bridge on the far side there is a path off to the left running up into the trees to rejon the line of the canal.

Throughout this section there is an option of two paths you can take. One better made is also used by cyclists, although it is slightly easier walking, whilst the other is more like a foot trodden track, but does have the advantage of you not having to move out of cyclist’s way.

After some distance you reach a small car park serving visitors to the canal.

On the other side you reach a section – the most attractive on the walk – where there is still some water in the canal.

This section is live with plant, insect and bird life.

It also feels quite like a rural canal still in places.

After a couple of further miles of walking you are nearing Bennerley Viaduct.

At one stage the path beside the canal slopes down to beside some mechanic’s workshops, before sloping upwards again.

The line of the canal here runs through a concrete trough, as if to potentially serve as an aqueduct in the (incredibly unlikely) event that it was ever decided to reopen the canal to waterborne traffic.

After this minor diversion you continue a short way along the semi-watered canal.

Presently you reach a main road, where there is a double set of traffic lights. One for pedestrians and cyclists, the other for horses.

On the other side of the road you head slightly to the left and rejoin the canal path.

This is where you enter the final section of canal before you reach Bennerley Viaduct. A stretch of the former Nottingham Canal which is now used by an angling club.

A little further on you cross a country road. Here through a gap in the hedge you get your first glimpse of the 443 metre long span of Bennerley Viaduct stretching across the Erewash Valley.

On the other side of the road you continue a little further along the side of the old canal.

Soon through a gap in the trees to your left you see the viaduct again, this time much closer.

From this point lookout on your left for a gateway.

Upon reaching the gateway turn left and walk through it.

Follow the path on the other side, which heads slightly to the right.

After a short distance you come to a junction where you head right.

This leads to a steep flight of steps. These take you up onto the former abutment that took trains onto and off the viaduct.

At the top of the steps you emerge onto the abutment, with the full span of Bennerley Viaduct stretching in front of you.

Which you can then cross, walking nearly 20 metres up in the air across the meadows and wetlands on the floor of the Erewash Valley, and the little River Erewash itself flowing south towards its confluence with the mighty River Trent.

In the distance to the south the power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, near the points where Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire meet, is prominent on the skyline. Well over 10 miles away, something that illuminates its status. Today it is one of the few reminders of how large coal loomed in this corner of the East Midlands. To the north of the viaduct sits a single wind turbine, a sign of a potential energy future for the area.

Once across the River Erewash you are into Derbyshire and due north of Ilkeston the largest town in the area.

Stepping off the Bennerley Viaduct you continue straight ahead. Follow the network of ramps and steps giving access to the structure downwards.

They lead you to the banks of the – very much still active – Erewash Canal.

Upon reaching the towpath turn left.

Follow the towpath for several hundred metres passing a lock.

Presently you reach a road which cuts across the towpath. Cross over the road and continue along the towpath on the other side.

Soon you pass beneath a road bridge. On the other side you approach a footbridge across the canal.

Upon reaching the footbridge there is a path running off to the left.

Turn down this path and follow it as it runs across a patch of scrubland then over a bridge.

This brings you out next to a cluster of workshops at the end of a road of terraced houses.

Head right here and walk along the road of terraces.

Having walked past the terraces you come out onto a main road.

Here, turn left and walk up a slight hill.

This leads to a footbridge from which you can access Ilkeston Railway Station.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Trains from Ilkeston Railway Station run south towards Nottingham and north towards Sheffield. There are also (as of the time of writing in August 2022) a few services each day which run to Liverpool or Leeds, as well as down to Norwich. Sheffield to Nottingham trains are hourly throughout the day. From Nottingham it is possible to get trains south towards Leicester, as well as east towards Lincolnshire, and west towards Derby, Staffordshire, and down towards the West Midlands conurbation. Ilkeston town centre is also served by buses running to locations across Derbyshire as well as to adjoining parts of Nottinghamshire.