Johnny Brown's Common, South Kirkby

Sketch map: Johnny Brown's Common

Johnny Brown's Common in West Yorkshire is one of those strange places that don't look promising on the map but which attracts scarce or rare visitors. No idea why, it could be a confluence of ley lines or particularly keen-eyed locals who find the things on their patch the rest of us miss on ours. Whatever, it's worth keeping an eye out for it turning up in bird reports or having a nosy round on spec if you're in the area. Last Winter and Spring it hosted ferruginous and ring-necked ducks, this Autumn it hosted a brown shrike. On my first visit last year I saw a ferruginous duck on the lake twenty minutes after listening to an Iberian chiffchaff singing by the railway line.

The site's essentially a piece of common land just north of South Kirkby and Moorthorpe with footpaths from the main roads running alongside and under the embankments of a railway junction. The paths can be a lot muddy in wet weather and there are a couple of routes that involve steep steps.

Ferruginous duck, June 2019

Johnny Brown's Common is easy to get to on public transport. Moorthorpe is the nearest station, ten or fifteen minutes away, with regular trains from Sheffield and Leeds. Trains from Doncaster call at South Emsall Station, about a mile West of Moorthorpe Station on Barnsley Road.

On a first visit it's probably simplest to walk down Barnsley Road, turn right onto Carr Lane after the recreational ground and follow the lane down to its end, pausing to have a look to see what's on the duck pond. At the end of the lane follow the path going under the railway line and you'll enter a patch of thin woodland with a network of mostly muddy paths. Following the main path takes you under another railway line and onto the common proper, leading on to the small lake. The paths heading South lead on to Moorthorpe Lane.

An alternative route from the station is via Moorthorpe Lane (there's a stepped exit from the station directly onto Moorthorpe Lane from the Northbound platform; the Southbound platform's only accessible from Barnsley Road). Not far beyond the bridge over the railway there's a footpath that drops down and runs alongside the line towards the common. If you've got as far as Longdale Drive you've overshot. This route includes some paths with steps.

Johnny Brown's Common