Norwood Tunnel (Chesterfield Canal)
2,895 yards long, Norwood Tunnel was built without a towpath. The tunnel has been out of use since a roof collapse in 1908, and both portals are bricked up. The horse path over the top has long since been moved by the M1 motorway and Kiveton Colliery in particular, but the whole of the towpath has been developed as the Cuckoo Way, and of necessity a waymarked route over the top has been developed. During 2005 the section across the former Kiveton Colliery site was diverted as part of works to develop the site for other uses. That work continues, but at the time of writing (March 2006) the original route was physically, and as far as we can make out legally, back in use. The entire route between the two portals is subject to poor drainage - walking boots or Wellingtons are de rigeur.
From the towpath at the Kiveton (eastern) portal, cross over the portal to a flight of steps and enter a field through a waymarked stile. Follow the obvious route across the field to Hard Lane, taking care with any horses that might be loose in the field. Cross the road, bear left along the pavement and then bear right by a Cuckoo Way sign, just before a cottage. Follow the path behind the cottage then take the path away from the road towards the landscaped spoil heap. The path kinks just before a new footbridge over a stream, then continues straight on, past the spoil heap, to a stile at the foot of a new housing development. Bear left here to pass round the back of the spoil tip, eventually bearing right up a small hill to where you can see the M1. Follow the obvious path to a waymarker within 100 yards of the motorway, then bear left across the field to the obvious underpass beneath the M1. On the other side, follow the worn path down the hill, keeping the field hedge to your left. Ignoring the first waymarked path that enters the wood, about 100 yards further on a stile takes the Cuckoo Way into the edge of the wood, just above the western portal. Within another 100 yards you are on the towpath alongside the upper flight of locks.
If you are walking from the Killamarsh (western) end, the path pulls away from the canal just after the top flight of locks, about 100 yards short of the tunnel entrance. A stile takes you into a field and you should walk up the right-hand edge of the field towards the motorway, keeping the hedge to your right. At the top you will see the underpass to your right, and on the other side an obvious path points ahead to the left, towards a waymarker. At this waymarker follow the hedge alongside a shallow culvert for 400 yards or so, until the path dips down just before a landscaped spoil heap. The path now bears left along the foot of the tip, heading towards a new housing development. Scramble over a gate and then take a new stile on the right to access a new path leading towards Hard Lane. Continue as far as a new footbridge over a stream where the path kinks first right, and then left, before making for the road. Where you meet another path at a T-junction behind a cottage, bear left and follow the path round to the road. Turn left along the pavement, crossing over where the Cuckoo Way sign points to a stile and a path across a field. Take care if there are horses in the field, but the path is obvious enough and at a Cuckoo Way stile you are almost on top of the eastern portal.