News

ANNUAL COACH TRIP SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2026. ALL WELCOME

This years coach trip will take place on Saturday 26 September 2026. The coach will leave the Vue Cinema car park at Doncaster Dome at 0800 (be there by 0745) and will collect at the Park and Ride of York Road at about 0815 (be there by 0800). We will be offering 3 walks, approximate details below.

11.5 mile walk from Ravenscar to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way coastal path.
7 mile walk from Cloughton to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way coastal path.
3.5 mile round walk from Scalby Mills to the Old Harbour, Scarborough along the Cleveland Way.

The walks have been selected so they are suitable for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Walkers.

Bring along your family, partner or a friend. They do not have to walk, a day out in Scarborough is always a good idea.

The coach will leave Scarbrrough at 1800 so this should give people time to get some fish and chips and/or visit a local hostelry.

The coach will be provided by Buckley’s, same as last year, and will seat up to 49. Based on a take up rate of 43 the cost is £20/per person. If we manage to fill the coach the cost will come down to £17.50 and you will be refunded the £2.50 difference. Please note this is a 10% increase on the 2025 cost. This reflect the cost increases experienced by all coach operators in the last year plus the travel distance is slightly greater than in 2025. All other local walking groups have experienced similar cost increases during 2026

To book a place or places send an email to tomlinsonstephen4@gmail.com with the name/s of the those you are booking for. In the email can you also confirm you have made your payment to Doncaster Ramblers.

Please make payment direct to the Doncaster Ramblers bank account details below.

Account name. The Ramblers Association Doncaster Group.
Account number 20153322.
Sort code. 60 83 01
In the reference box put your first initial then a space followed by your surname then a symbol then coach, for example A Gibson-coach. This allows us to keep track of who has paid

PLEASE BOOK YOUR PLACE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO IF NECCESSARY WE CAN OFFER SEATS TO OTHER LOCAL RAMBLERS GROUPS AND WALKING GROUPS SO WE CAN FILL THE COACH.

SYNED Ramblers Area AGM

The SYNED Ramblers Area AGM was held on Saturday January 17th 2026. You can read a summary here.

Annual General Meeting

Our AGM was held on 24th November. You can read the draft minutes here.

SIGN UP TODAY TO RECEIVE EMAILS FROM DONCASTER RAMBLERS

We are working towards setting up an email contact system for as many of our members as possible. This will allow us to send updates on Doncaster Ramblers activities at minimal cost. If you are not signed up on the main Ramblers website to receive emails, or you cannot recall if you have, then go to https://www.ramblers.org.uk/

1. Sign into your account (see black box at top of the Home Page.) This opens another Home Page.

2. Go to My Details and click on this.

3. Scroll down to Contact Preferences.

4. Tick email.

Walks Leaders Needed

You will appreciate that we put on three walks per week, so that’s about 150 walks a year. At the moment leadership of these walks is being undertaken by too few members. We need more people to undertake leading, particularly for the Thursday and Saturday walks. A new leader, if they wish, would be very welcome to buddy-up with an experienced leader to guide them through the process of planning, recce-ing, etc.

To submit a walk send to Peter Gravestock at: peter_gravestock@talktalk.net

Contact Charlie re queries about Tuesday walks, martin.pratt2006@btinternet.com, Angela re Saturday walks amg28@hotmail.com, and David re Thursday walks pdgadd@icloud.com.

Expenses

Ramblers has always paid expenses to members who have incurred reasonable expenses in the course of Ramblers’ activities. These include fuel expenses (at 28p per mile) for carrying out a recce, attending a maintenance session, etc.
Given that Ramblers is a charity most members choose not to claim, but the right is there.
The treasurer is responsible for deciding if something is a ‘reasonable expense’.

There is an Expense form on the website under Downloads

Ramblers Association Doncaster Group

Minutes of Committee meeting held on 15^th January 2018 at The Three Horse Shoes

Committee Members Present: David Gadd, David Horne Tony Marsh, Bob Carlisle, Marion Thompson, Peter Rowsell Dennis Neal , Tony Liversidge and Martin Wyman.

Apologies

Apologies received from: Owen Evans, Dave Binnington, Peter Gravestock and Jim Elvidge,

Minutes of previous meeting 20^th September.

Minutes confirmed as accurate DG/TM.

Matters arising from those minutes.

Ref 3 when TM asked if PR had managed to involve Rosie Winterton yet. TM said that Rosie had walked with HF the previous Sunday and seemed to think they were the Ramblers. PR will try and involve her in our Festival.

Walking Festival.

BC said the full Programme was now on the website. He was meeting with Dean Wiffen on Thursday to go through the Programme, and distributed of mock-up of how it will look. DW will run a draft off. The leaflets will be delivered to all Council tenants plus others. TL suggested libraries and GP practices and will look into this. He also suggested a stand in the Frenchgate Centre, PR will investigate. The new GDW Programme doesn’t start until the summer so we are ‘manna from heaven’ to Dean.

BC has contacted Go Outdoors, who will support us by providing 2 prizes to be awarded to people providing feedback and offered sessions to talk to walkers. They will also consider paying for an advert in our Walks Programme.

MW said that based on the BC/DB Christmas walk in the Winter Festival and the requirement to register walkers and collect feedback we probably needed at least four Ramblers on each walk. BC replied that he didn’t disagree; they had insisted on at least a leader and back marker, and planned to encourage further participation nearer the date.

Finally, with any luck, he should have something to show us at the next meeting.

5. Walking for Health

MW reminded members that Walking for Health was run by Ramblers in association with Macmillan and that Macmillan were ending their involvement in March 2018. Ramblers were looking for other partners but nothing had been announced. DG said he was unclear what Ramblers provided and MW replied that we provided insurance, a website, advice and support, and training materials. PR confirmed that when he attended walk leader training at Sandall Beat Wood the documentation was branded Ramblers/Macmillan. MW added that he was unclear how responsibilities were split between Ramblers and local authorities.

MW said that we had been sent briefing material by Ramblers in the past with a request to be involved with Health walks, but Macmillan had capped the walks at a maximum of 90 minutes and 3 miles which was hard for us to include in our activities. The Health walks currently provide their own leaders. If Ramblers refocus to include ‘improvement’ walks which existed pre-Macmillan, say 4/5 miles, then DG said we may be able to get involved, and ask everyone to lead one walk. We may need something to offer to people from the Festival, so should revisit after that.

Financial Report.

DH said the Xmas raffle proceeds were £162, and asked if these could be split between Edale Mountain Rescue and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance as normal. Agreed. DG said we must make this decision before the raffles in future so that members would know before they purchased tickets. MW said he would bring this forward to a later meeting.

Publicity Officer

We are still getting a regular mention in the DFP, every other week.

We are registered with the Trax FM website and get mentions on their Diary page. He will also try to get a banner for the Festival on their website.

Walks Programme Update.

BC said a session had taken place last week. They were halfway through getting details of Tuesday walks and were in good shape. TM said Trevor Jenkins was struggling with the Saturday walks.

Rights of Way Report

MW

As I’m sure you all know Doncaster Ramblers walked all 591 paths in the DMBC area in 2017, with special thanks to Tony Marsh for organising the November/December ‘clean up’. I’m sure Tony will say more on this in his section of the report. I referred to Penny’s level crossing at the last meeting, and I met David Ward and David Shorrocks from NR on site on 28^th November. David is asking NR to provide a right of way on their land beside the track south from Penny’s as compensation for closure of the crossing. David Shorrocks has not responded as yet as far as I know.

NR have one claim, two diversion applications, and two informal consultations lodged with DMBC at present. In addition, the Level Crossing Managers for Sheffield, Doncaster and Lincoln attended the PROW Forum on 7^th December to discuss some of these.

And somewhat to my surprise I have received plans for the proposed route for HS2 and how rights of way are affected, and have been asked for comments and ideas. Julie expects HS2 to submit proposals to parliament by the end of 2018. I’m not quite sure what to say at this point, except perhaps ‘don’t do it, it’s a waste of money’. I must admit that the fact that under the proposed plans there is no parkway station in South Yorkshire, the trains just pass through, should be objected to. A consultation was scheduled to take place in 2017 but I can find no reports.

TM

There is very little to report on since our last meeting.

According to the schedule printed in the Walks Programme I should be reporting on two sessions, one in December and one in early January this year. Unfortunately both sessions had to be rearranged and will now take place on Wednesday, 17th and Wednesday 31st January 2018. This will bring the dates back in line with those shown in the Walks Programme. Quite a few new problems on our footpaths were identified by our 'path checkers' in 2017, so there is plenty for our volunteers to do in 2018, particularly in certain areas of the Borough. What we need is some good weather so that we can make progress.

Social Report

DN said that he will collect names for the coach trip on June 30^th. HL has already ‘opened a book’.

HL will not be hosting the AGM in 2018 so DN asked about alternatives. DG said that some time ago we had held one at Potteric Carr, with a walk in the morning and the AG in the afternoon. Also we could look at pubs or village halls with entertainment, DN had organised one at the Catholic Club in the past. ‘Fingers Emley’ has been recommended as entertainment. The date was set for October 20^th.

DG has recced a walk at Howden, dining at The Waterwheel. Date set for Tuesday 11^thDecember, DG will book.

Date of Saturday walk set for 15^th, DN to contact Saturday walkers.

11 . AOB.

- MW had received 10 copies each of Walk Leader’s Checklist and In Case of Emergency Card from Ramblers. TM and BC took some of the former for the Festival.

- DG had given Christine Whittaker, the SYNED website officer, some new text and photos for the link from the SYNED website to the Doncaster Ramblers website.

- DG asked for contributions for the Newsletter. BC asked for something on encouraging new leaders including the option of ‘buddy-ing up’.

-DG asked how many Walk Programmes we should print, currently 400. The Festival is coming up and PR said the copies given to Tourist Information went quickly and they were always grateful for more copies. It was agreed to print 750.

The meeting closed at 20:55.