Langsett Resevoir

Hubby and I felt the need for a long walk, somewhere a bit remote but not too far away. The young man begged for "a day off", so we left him behind and the dancing queen had not emerged from her friends house, so we had the walk all to ourselves - with NO MOANING!!!!! We drove to Langsett Reservoir which is about 8 miles away from us, but on the edge of the "Dark Peak" near to the Woodhead Pass on the edge of the Pennines. There is still lots of deep snow around here, and walking was tricky in parts because of the ice.

As soon as you enter the forest, you can't believe that you are still in South Yorkshire.

The moors stretch over to the Derwent Dams - it looked very foreboding but truly spectacular covered with snow. There is the remains of an old farm up here called "North America " farm. It must have been a tough existance to live here before Land Rovers were invented.

Hubby absolutely loves this walk. He likes to get as far away from civilisation as possible!!! The reservoir was built in the early 1900's by damming the river Don (which is really only a small stream up here). There are several dams along this valley through Stocksbridge which was once famous for its steel works. Samuel Fox steel employed thousands of people in the area, and even when I left school in 1976, many school leavers gained employment here. Sadly, there's not much of it left.

We resisted calling in at the pub, and the cafe (New Years resloutions and all - more of which at a later date!!) and headed off home to eat the Parsnip soup that I had made with the glut of parsnips that I had left over. Very tasty it was too.

A brilliant walk to start the New Year.