Staunton Harold Reservoir

Staunton Harold reservoir isn't far from Calke Abbey - in fact it can be seen from the certain points of Calke's grounds, and isn't a very long walk away. It's owned by Severn-Trent water but the National Trust have recently taken over running the visitor facilities there, and, being in the area, I thought we'd check it out. 

There isn't really a lot to do at the visitor centre. There's a cafe (closed as we visited early evening) and a kiddies' playpark, but that's about it. There's a sailing club, but members only. An old windmill to look at. And that's about it. You can walk more or less beside the reservoir to Calke, (under 2 miles) which we've done on a previous occasion, but we'd just come from Calke. A lot of the walks mentioned on the NT site actually start from elsewhere. 

This evening we walked along a nature trail (a good tarmacked road, part of the route to Calke) but although the views of the reservoir are quite nice, it's not really very interesting. Perhaps in Spring or Summer, with wild flowers coming into bloom, it's better, but I won't be hurrying back.

A good sunset rounded the day off nicely; captured from the car window as we crossed the causeway at Swarkestone.