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.

 

A Short Walk at Staunton Harold Reservoir

Saturday evening was so lovely that after going round Melbourne Art Trail during the day, we didn't feel quite ready to head home, so drove just up the road to Staunton Harold Reservoir for a short walk.

From the car park a good path lead round the top of the reservoir to a weir where water flows in from a pond within Calke Abbey grounds.

At the other end, near the dam, there's a sailing club, cafe and visitor facilities but this upper section is quiet and serene (though that could have been because of the time of day)

From the weir the path heads into the Calke Estate, but access is only to the footpath which runs outside the deer fence. We saw a few deer - a doe and young on our outward leg, and a stag on the return - but there were far more squirrels scampering about the trees.








The path took us up a slight hill from where there's a view over surrounding farmland, and, with the sun about to set, we decided to turn round and retrace our steps from here.

The sky was starting to redden as we reached the car park, but saved its best display for our journey home.