River Dearne

The River Dearne flows for over thirty kilometres through South Yorkshire, rising near Birdsedge and joining the River Don at Denaby Main. It passes through villages and towns including Denby Dale, Barnsley, Wath upon Dearne and Mexborough. The river’s main tributary is the River Dove, which meets it at Darfield. In 2007 the Dearne was one of many rivers affected by severe flooding across the United Kingdom. The Dearne Way long-distance footpath runs along the river from its source to the Don, offering walkers a route of about thirty miles. Along the way the path passes Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Monk Bretton Priory. The Dearne Valley below Barnsley has been reorganised as a regeneration area. Flood defences include washlands built in the 1960s and 1970s and a flood relief channel at Bolton upon Dearne. After decades of pollution, salmon returned to the river in 2015 for the first time since the 1860s. The river’s course is marked by historic bridges, mills and railway viaducts. Near Denby Dale it passes under a twenty-one-arch viaduct built in 1884. At Yorkshire Sculpture Park the river feeds upper and lower lakes before turning south past Bretton Hall. Near Barnsley the remains of the Barnsley Canal run beside the river, and Priory Mill dates from the seventeenth century. The river then flows through washlands managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, where spoonbills and avocets have been seen.