Away from Calderdale for a while and head down country for a family get-together for celebration of my Mum's 70th birthday, on the nearest available week, and as it lands in Autumn Half Term week, this makes it possibly the most pre-planned holiday since our trip to Oberammergau in 1990. Amusingly, planning was done without an obvious destination in mind, but when notes were compared it turned out that My Sis and I had managed to pick out holiday houses within 3 miles of each other, I'd picked the nicer house but she picked a site with a pool so her girls might be more easily entertained, and her choice won out. So on the Saturday we all converge on South Derbyshire, to Knockerdown Farm, just outside the Peak District, and I travel with a pile of copies of OL24 and walking destinations for the first four days, hopeful that Autumn Jollies will deliver good weather.
Carsington Water. 9.6 miles
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| The Visitor Centre |
An early Sunday lunch is taken and family go of to their separate destinations and at 12.20pm I walk out on the road from Knockerdown to the major attraction in the locality, namely Carsington Water, apparently the ninth largest reservoir in England and one that I hadn't previously heard of, largely because is is only 20 years old, having been completed in 1992. Operated by Severn Trent Water, It's used largely as an overflow and store for the nearby River Derwent, filling in the winter months and replenishing said river in summer with water abstraction being the secondary concern, but arriving on site you notice that this is actually a major leisure facility, with a huge visitor centre (in an awful late 80s style), extensive boating facilities and clubs for fishers and twitchers. The actively minded have cycleways and footpaths all around the lake, and that is the route I will be taking, not under the illusion that it will be an easy walk because I know that reservoir paths are never as level as you'd expect, and you will also be walking quite a long way without ever being that far from your start point.
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| The Dam & Valve Tower |
Taking the anti-clockwise route around starts you off southwards through the children's play area, before meeting the path that takes you away from the car parks and into wooded seclusion around the grounds of Carsington Sailing Club. You won't be getting a lot of solitude on this early section as there are all sorts of folk out on the path, from young couples out with buggies and kids on their first bikes, to serious cyclists and right along to elderly couples out on their Sunday afternoon stroll and oldsters out on their mobility scooters, verily all human life is here. The path leads out on the dam, a massive embankmented structure that is a solid mile long, and you can plod along the top of it, using the valve tower as your reference point at the other end, wondering just how long it will take to get there. The views over the water indicate a lot of sailing going on, so much indeed that you might wonder if there's a regatta taking place, and views southwards over Scow Brook indicate what the area looked like before the reservoir came along. It's also a lovely clear day, and someone has seen that this is an occasion for a balloon ride, and I must say I envy them enormously. Pause at the south end, by the concrete arena above the overflow run-off, and consider the valve tower as an enigmatic structure that every reservoir has, and yet you are uncertain of the precise function of it.
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| Upperfield Bay |
Follow the path away from Millfields car park and the touring crowds thin out a little, and there are various paths that lead down to the water's edge for the benefit of fishers and twitchers, but I'll just take the routes away from the cyclists and note that the only bird nesting features that I can identify are those high poles with platforms for cranes or storks. Also along here is a stone building, inside which is a living room entirely made of roughly carved wood, there's no explanation provided that I can see, so put it down to someone at Severn Trent Water wanting to put something interesting in the landscape. Press on as the path starts to take on the rises and falls that are to be expected as the route leaves the contour near the waterline, the ascent that takes around Upperfields Bay is a particularly sharp climb, and the signs dotted around the place amuse me, as they all illustrate the consequences of taking on slopes at speed with flailing stick men. Meet Oldfields Lane, and this leads right down to a fence with the roadway disappearing at the water's edge, the only really obvious bit of the original landscape superseded by the reservoir. This is a reservoir that lacks obvious romance as there are no missing villages inundated by the rising waters, as by the 1980s , slightly more care was taken with the planning of major works of engineering. It's a good sport to stop for watering, as the day has turned out much warmer than would be expected at this time of year.
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| The North Shore |
Dart amongst the cycling families to hit the next rise and fall that takes us out on the next major detour of the rote, this taking around Fish Tail Creek, so-called because of its shape, and it puts a mile onto the route to cover about a quarter mile in a straight line. Oddly, at the apex of that feature, the crowds of tourers thins down dramatically, and once the main body of the reservoir has been rejoined in Sitch Plantation, no more cycling groups pass me, as if this marks the furthest anyone is willing to travel in this direction. That just leaves a small number of visible walkers to move on to the top edge of the reservoir, and the decision to make is whether to take the high path or low path through Big Covert and Hall Wood, and I choose the lower path, and it's actually a bit of a drag, with a vista that doesn't change all that much throughout its duration, the hills of Carsington Pasture to the north never get that much closer and Knockerdown farm can't quite be picked out in the high land to the west. The top right corner provides a bit of actual wild looking wetland, and the path swings westwards to provide a fresh vista down the full length of the reservoir, sparkling silvery in the afternoon sun, whilst the path follows down the north edge of the reservoir behind a wattle fence with the B5035 running alongside, it's probably the least interesting bit of walk with the best overall views. Leave the water's edge as we wander along Brown Ale Bay (a name we can all appreciate!), and cross the creek and onto the path that leads to the bird hides, and chuckle for quite a while that one is dedicated to Paul Stanley, who'd have thought that the lead singer of KISS was also a local ornithologist?
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| Stones Island |
At Sheepwash carpark, the path wanders quite vaguely over the grass to avoid the cars and over the sheep-strewn fields to a lengthy wooded sections, with promises of the enigmatically named 'Bombing Tower' which turns out to be an elevated bird hide, but it does have a vaguely military shading. The path shadow the cycleway for some distance, only briefly sharing a route, and the crowds seem to have returned to the paths, and I'm baffled as to why the top right quarter of the reservoir seemed so relatively under-used. Another long detour away from our destination takes us around the arms of Shiningford Creek, before the path winds up at the Wildlife Centre with its large Twitchers shed and assortment of bird boxes, and soon enough we're passing the watersports centre and the main car park and the circuit is almost done. Take the path that crosses over the rocky spit to Stones Island, to never quite get the 360 degree panorama that such a promontory might offer, and instead take in the Saxon Round Barrow, more fun rough carved furniture in a mushroom style and the contemporary Stone Circle with path that demands an ascent and circumnavigate. The sun feel like it's getting low, so I leave the island to the wall builders on the shore to make the most cursory of glances at the Visitor Centre to find the the Kugel stone, a floating sphere of Granite isn't working and the shops are selling a mix of outdoor gear and tourist tat, I've no further time to linger though as I've got to make tracks back to Knockerdown as first man home has to check on the pot roast to make sure it hasn't dried out. So back to base for 4.30pm, and a good afternnon's walk has been had, and the pot roast is also in fine fettle!
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 402.6 miles
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