Ryburn - Baitings Reservoir Walk

Lots of water coming over the dams

We needed to get out of the house and let he kids burn off some steam, some of our friends had the same idea. We didn't want to go too far as he weather was pretty poor, low cloud and rain.

We've walked around The Baitings reservoir several times but never been around Ryburn Reservoir. We followed one of our friends through Ripponden and were surprised when we turned down Nursery Lane and headed down to the car park by the reservoir dam. Normally there is only a small amount of water spilling over the dam but with it raining every day for 3 weeks the waterfall over both dams was impressive. 

We headed over the dam and followed the lake edge, crossing a bridge and then following the path away from the lake and out of the woods. The dogs were running around enjoying freedom, our friend Labrador  picked up a large branch and insisted on carrying it. It was quite funny watching Archie clonking into things as he trundled along with his trophy!

The change in landscape was surprising and within moments we had gone from secluded woodland onto barren moorland. After passing a farm we headed still higher and soon saw a great view of Baiting dam. From here we headed over to the second dam of the day. From here we could have walked around Baitings reservoir, but today we headed straight across the dam.

Next we followed the path down the wall side in front of the dam. The path headed down into the bottom of the valley, we then followed the water course back down to Ryburn Reservoir. There was lots of mud on this side of the lake, it was surprising that the kids stayed on their feet and didn't end up wet and muddy. As we neared the car it started raining again!

Before we headed home we walked down the steps to the foot of Ryburn dam and enjoyed the raging torrent of water. It might be a while before we see this much water coming over the dam.