Top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Sheffield
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The top Hidden Gems Day Trips from Sheffield include Sheffield General Cemetery, Rivelin Valley Nature Trail, The Lost Gateway, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, Redmires Reservoir, Carl Wark (Iron Age Hillfort), Higger Tor and Burbage Brook.
Few cities sit as close to wild country as Sheffield, where leafy suburbs give way to river valleys and open moor within a few miles. Start almost in the centre at the General Cemetery in Sharrow, then follow the water west along the Rivelin Valley Nature Trail, once lined with cutlery mills.
Over in the northeast, Woolley Woods hides the curious Lost Gateway, while to the south the River Sheaf turns the wheels at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. Push west and the streets run out altogether: the Redmires reservoirs spread across Hallam Moors, and just beyond, on the eastern edge of the Peak District, the gritstone strongholds of Carl Wark and Higger Tor rise above the Burbage valley, with Burbage Brook tumbling down through the woods below.
It is a day out that swings from Victorian graves to Iron Age ramparts without ever straying far. Here are eight hidden gems for a day trip from Sheffield.
Sheffield General Cemetery
Photo: Richard Cooke via Geograph.org.uk
Sheffield General Cemetery A short mile south-west of the centre in Sharrow, this Victorian garden cemetery opened in 1836 among the country's earliest landscaped commercial burial grounds, laid out across a former quarry with Greek and Egyptian touches. Around 87,000 people are buried here, though it took no new graves after 1978.
Its monuments include a restored Nonconformist chapel, a Gothic Anglican chapel, a gatehouse spanning the Porter Brook and tiers of hillside catacombs, the resting places of steel pioneers, artists and war heroes. A heritage trust now keeps it as a green space and events venue, with restored paths and guided tours.
Rivelin Valley Nature Trail
Photo: Steve Fareham via Geograph.org.uk
Rivelin Valley Nature Trail Close to home in western Sheffield, the Rivelin Valley Nature Trail is a wooded riverside walk of about three miles that follows the River Rivelin between Malin Bridge and the old corn mill on Rails Road. The valley once bristled with water-powered mills feeding the city's cutlery and steel trades, and the path threads past their surviving dams, wheel pits and weirs among the trees.
Dippers, kingfishers and herons haunt the river. Roughly halfway along, at Rivelin Park, you will find a cafe, toilets, a play area and a summer water-play feature, with parking on the valley road.
The Lost Gateway
Photo: Nic Franklin-Woolley via Geograph.org.uk
The Lost Gateway Tucked into Woolley Woods, an ancient wood in the northeast of Sheffield, the Lost Gateway is a stone sculpture made in 2010 to resemble the crumbling remains of an old archway. Built from reclaimed local stone, it is carved with words, runes and imagery drawn from the Norse legend of the wolf Fenrir, and you can duck beneath its low arch as you pass.
It stands beside a woodland path as part of a local art trail, with no buildings or facilities anywhere near. For all its weathered, ruinous look, it is a modern artwork rather than a genuine ancient ruin.
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
Photo: Ashley Dace via Geograph.org.uk
Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet Down in the south of Sheffield, on the River Sheaf, Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet is a preserved water-powered works that now serves as an industrial museum. Here scythes and other edge tools were forged beneath water-driven tilt hammers, and the site keeps its water wheels, hammers, grinding shops, a crucible steel furnace, workers' cottages and the manager's house.
Documented from the early eighteenth century, it was restored and opened as a museum in 1970 and is run by the city's museums trust, with working demonstrations on certain days. Entry is free, and it opens on set days through the year.
Redmires Reservoir
Photo: Neil Theasby via Geograph.org.uk
Redmires Reservoir A little further west, on Hallam Moors at Sheffield's western edge, the Redmires Reservoirs form a chain of three sheets of water, upper, middle and lower, built in the nineteenth century to slake the growing city's thirst. Open moorland and reservoir-side paths make this fine walking country, with wide views back over Sheffield and out across the moors.
Just beyond the water lie the faint traces of a First World War training camp, where the Sheffield City Battalion, the Sheffield Pals, drilled before heading off to the Somme, marked now only by low banks and hollows in the ground.
Carl Wark (Iron Age Hillfort)
Photo: Dave Pickersgill via Geograph.org.uk
Carl Wark (Iron Age Hillfort) Out on Hathersage Moor in the Peak District, roughly eleven kilometres from Sheffield, Carl Wark is a rocky gritstone promontory ringed on its steep sides by natural crags and sealed off at the western end by a stout stone-faced rampart with a walled entrance. It has long been taken for a hillfort, though its date is genuinely uncertain, argued as Iron Age, early medieval or older still, so it is best described as a fortified enclosure of disputed age.
A scheduled monument, it is reached on foot across the moor below Higger Tor, with open views over the Burbage valley.
Higger Tor
Photo: Philip Thompson via Geograph.org.uk
Higger Tor A stone's throw from Carl Wark, Higger Tor is a flat-topped gritstone tor on the eastern moors of the Peak District, near Hathersage, rising above the Burbage valley with the Iron Age enclosure of Carl Wark on the plateau just below. Its summit is scattered with big boulders among heather and cotton grass, and it is reached by a short, easy walk from roadside parking on the Fox House road.
It is a favourite spot for sweeping moorland views and for sunrise and sunset photography, often combined with Carl Wark into a single circuit.
Burbage Brook
Photo: John Fielding via Geograph.org.uk
Burbage Brook Completing the moorland loop, Burbage Brook rises near Stanage Edge and runs down through the Burbage valley on the Peak District's eastern moors, threading between Higger Tor and Carl Wark on one side and Burbage Edge on the other. It slips past the Toad's Mouth rock beside the road, then flows into the National Trust's Longshaw estate and down through Padley Gorge, a wooded ravine of gnarled oaks, mossy boulders and little rocky cascades, before joining the River Derwent.
Easy walks follow it from the Longshaw visitor centre, and the woods are known for pied flycatchers and dippers.
FAQs
How far are the Peak District moors from Sheffield?
The eastern moors sit remarkably close, with Higger Tor and Carl Wark only about eleven kilometres from Sheffield and reachable in well under half an hour by car, plus a short walk from roadside parking near Fox House.
Are any of these Sheffield hidden gems free to visit?
Plenty are. Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet offers free entry on its open days, while Sheffield General Cemetery, the Rivelin Valley trail and the open moors around Redmires cost nothing to explore at all.
Which spots suit families with children?
The Rivelin Valley Nature Trail near Sheffield is ideal, with a cafe, play area and summer water-play at Rivelin Park, and the gentle paths along Burbage Brook in the Longshaw estate are easy going for little legs too.
Conclusion
Not many cities can offer a Victorian garden cemetery, a valley of old cutlery mills and a run of gritstone tors all in one day, yet Sheffield does exactly that. You could linger among the monuments at the General Cemetery, trace the water wheels along the Rivelin and Abbeydale, then climb into the moors for the wide horizons of Redmires, Carl Wark and Higger Tor.
The eastern moors reward walkers of every stripe, whether you fancy a gentle riverside stroll by Burbage Brook or a scramble up to a windswept summit. Best of all, most of these places are free and never far from a bus route or a car park.
Pull on some sturdy boots, check the forecast and set off, because these are the hidden gems for a day trip from Sheffield.
