Please select your trail:

 

• Family quiz trail
• Heritage trail
• Nature trail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prehistoric Lakeside

There is evidence for human settlement around Lakeside from around the Late Bronze Age through into the Roman period and beyond. Whilst a great deal of the land in the vicinity was Carr (wetland scrub) for much of this period, the higher sand banks formed good islands for farming. This was a wetland environment which would have been rich in vegetation and wildlife.

A series of complex field systems linked to track ways and connected to enclosures have been recorded through aerial photography. Many of these are thought to extend back to the Bronze Age. However those that have been investigated seem to be mainly later Iron Age and Roman.

The site of the old Doncaster Rover’s ‘Belle Vue’ football ground has produced an interesting enclosure, which may have been used seasonally for livestock and perhaps as a temporary farmstead.

Across the A638 which follows the line of the old Roman road, a Roman coin hoard from the 100s AD was discovered in a ditch. The ditch was attached to, or forms part of, another enclosure.

• Back to trail options 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mallards and Gadwalls at Doncaster Lakeside

Mallards (Anas Platyrhynchos) are widespread and very easily seen at the Lakeside. The males are colourful and the females are shades of brown. It is the females that make the classic quacking sound, with the males making
more of low rasping noise.

Mallards eat water weeds and land plants, as well as insects and small fish, by day and night. They pair up, nest and rear young at the Lakeside, but the first sign of this is usually the fluffy ducklings appearing on the water with their mothers, apparently out of nowhere.

Some of the ducks on the Lake are the result of interbreeding between Mallards and white farmyard ducks. Gadwalls (Anas Strepera) are smaller than Mallards. The females are very similar to Mallard females, but with more delicate bills. The males have speckled or barred plumage that seems like a velvety grey from a distance. In 2016 a family of 21 gadwall ducklings hatched out and thrived under the care of their supermum. 

 

 The content of this trail has been developed by the Doncaster Lakeside Wildlife Action Group. Visit their website at: http://lakesidewildlifeactiongroup.weebly.com/ or follow them on Twitter @WildlifeLakeDN4. 

•   Back to trail options

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question

Where can you go swimming or ice skating near lakeside? 

• Answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: Doncaster Dome

•  Back to trail options