Sunnybank Nature Reserve - Sheffield

The Broomhall Centre can be reached from the University Supertram Stop  by walking up Glossop Rd, turning left into Brunswick St and right into Broomspring Lane. Alternatively, the buses which go to the Hallamshire Hospital pass the top of Broomspring Lane.

[1] From the Broomhall Centre turn right and cross over the road, walk up Broomspring Lane, cross over the road to your left and take the first turn on your right along Havelock Street towards the allotments. You will pass a small seating area on your right. Turn left down Holberry Gardens onto Brunswick Street. Turn right and walk along Brunswick Street.

[2] Continue ahead crossing Collegiate Crescent and Broomhall Road onto Broomhall Place, following the blue Cycle signs for Nether Edge.

[3] Continue along and downhill into the wooded area. Follow the path around and to the right (note the larger than life metal insects dotted around and in the woods). You are in Sunnybank Nature Reserve.

(A) Sunnybank Nature Reserve. Despite its small size and unlovely location, behind a petrol station at the end of Ecclesall Road, Sunnybank is the Wildlife Trust’s most visited nature reserve.  But then, that’s hardly surprising, given that this is the only public green space in the area – the only place where people can find trees and tranquillity, and relief from the noise of the ring road.

At the bottom of the path take the path to your left and walk through the trees, and up to the top, following the path to your right and back to the beginning of the start of the trail

[4] Turn right and walk up to Broomhall Place and head back  along Wharncliffe Road and Brunswick Street, turning left  into Broomspring Lane to the Broomhall Centre.

There’s plenty to see at Sunnybank.  The pool is surrounded by aquatic and wetland plants, and is home to the common frog, a UK threatened species, several types of dragonfly and pond skaters.  The scrubby woodland, and hedgerows, one with a healthy mix of blackthorn, hawthorn, wild cherry, rowan and grey willow, provide plentiful food and shelter for the many birds that feed and nest here, and butterflies abound on the hay meadow in summer.  Species to be found here include the small skipper, green-veined white, red admiral and common blue, while burnet and cinnabar moths have also been sighted, along with foxes, hedgehogs and pipistrelle bats.

The many visitors to the reserve can also enjoy the eye-catching wildlife sculptures, of dragonflies and other insects, and simply experience a small piece of countryside in the centre of the city.

Route Developer: HJ

Photo - The pond at Sunnybank Nature Reserve © (Martin Speck) / CC BY-SA 2.0