Monday September 11th

 The Longdendale Reservoirs

As ever, our choice of walk was heavily influenced by the (somewhat inclement) weather. A walk around the Longdendale Reservoirs from Crowden seemed like a good bet, especially as the prospect of a coffee at The Pixie Bakes coffee shop was inviting. We parked up at the Crowden car park and set out along the original road towards the east. The farmyard was packed with sheep, clearly with a game of "King of the Castle" in progress.
Sheep playing "King of the Castle"

After crossing the road, there is a short section through the woods before crossing the Torside dam.

Through the woods to the Torside Dam

Above the dam, there's a turnstile next to the Pennine Way descent to the road across the dam. The OS map shows a couple of footpaths converging on it, but there's little if any indication of it being used.

Turnstyle above the Torside Dam

On arrival at Tintwistle we saw posters for Casper, a lost polecat ferret. With luck, he will have been found by now.

Where's Casper? Staying with Norman Tebbit, perhaps...

Much to our disappointment, Pixie Bakes was closed, as was the potential alternative at The Fishery. We continued on, taking a look a the gauging basin for the Bottoms Reservoir before continuing along the south side of the reservoir.

Bottoms Reservoir Gauging Basin

We stopped for our lunch on the bench on the side of the reservoir. To avoid walking back the way that we'd come, we crossed the Valehouse Dam and walked along the north side of the Valehouse and Rhodeswood reservoirs, before returning to Crowden through the woods and along the original road.

Twisted tree beside Bottoms Reservoir

Just over 5 hours, 10.2 miles, 300m ascent.


Popular posts from this blog

Sunday March 19th (Mothering Sunday)

Image
Marsen and March Haigh We had a leisurely start and headed off to Marsen, where we had a pleasant Dark Woods coffee  at Arcade . We parked up in the station car park- always ample space, and no charge then walked along the canal to the start of the Standedge Tunnel. Just beyond this, there was a small enclosure with a number of beehives. Beehives at the Standedge Tunnel These had been set up and managed by a Syrian refugee. We made our way up towards the March Haigh Reservoir, by now a familiar route. On our way to the March Haigh Reservoir It's quite a stiff walk up to the top of March Haigh itself, and we stopped for lunch just before the very top. As we wanted to get home in good time to talk with Rachel and DK, we took a shorter route back, down Willykay Clough and down to Close Gate Bridge, where a passerby kindly took a picture of us. Portrait on Close Gate Bridge The return to the car was back along the outward path beside the canal- lots of toads about! 7.6 Miles, 320m asce...
Read more

Tuesday June 6th

Image
Eyam Moor, Abney Moor and Offerton Moor Another walk from "Day Walks in the Peak District", and a complement to the walk that we did on  May 4th .The walk starts from the Hathersage car park and rejoins familiar territory at the Leadmill Bridge, where there's a short overlap with the May walk. Inscription on Leadmill Bridge On reaching Hazelford Hall, the two routes diverge and this time we went more or less directly up to the Sir William Hill Road. Rather than following the public road, we used the byway to skirt Bretton Moor and stopped for light refreshments (including crisps!) at The Barrel Inn at Bretton. From there, we followed the (currently closed to traffic) road across Hucklow Edge- easy walking, and very quiet. It was clear why the road was closed- there were landslips to its south and the road itself had collapsed at its western end, although not to the extent of the Mam Tor road!  On nearing the Gliding Club, the route took a welcome break from tarmac, cuttin...
Read more

Saturday April 1st

Image
Holmfirth, Upperthong and Lots of Reservoirs  After consulting Mike Dale's "Adventures in the Northern Peak", we decided to go to Holmfirth to do something different and, at 10.5 miles, we chose what seemed to be a reasonable walk in a new area. After a lovely coffee at the Holme Coffee House and a trip to the Co-Op for provisions, we started on Stage 1 of the walk. Essential rations... when in Yorkshire Stage 1 went from Holmfirth to Bilberry Reservoir, starting from the main road and going up the (very steep!) side of Victoria Park. There was a fair amount of twisting and turning down lanes and footpaths on this leg, including a walk though Upperthong. Door to waterworks in Thongsbridge The houses were interesting and the views were good- there was a constantly changing perspective on the Holme Moss Transmitter, familiar from Black Hill walks. We got to the Digley Reservoir and had lunch in a good spot above the reservoir. Outflow from Digley Reservoir After lunch, th...
Read more