We had planned to spend my birthday hiking up Kinder Scout but the torrential all-day downpour put a stop to those plans pretty quickly. We worked out that we had about a 90 minute window where we’d be able to walk in the dry: we therefore needed a walk which was close to our B&B and reasonably quick! Fortunately, there are quite a few smaller reservoirs scattered around the Peak District, so we had plenty of choice. We eventually settled on Broomhead Reservoir, a quick walk of about an hour, and only about a fifteen minute drive from our B&B.
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We found this walk in our Countryside Dog Walks guide for the Northern Peak District. This is a great little book with 20 shorter walks from around half an hour to just shy of 4 hours: if you’re after longer walks I’d recommend having a look at the Cicerone or Pocket Mountains guides.
The walk itself is an easy to follow circular where you just walk around the edge of the reservoir. You can park for free in a lay-by next to the bridleway where you start the walk – there was plenty of space when we parked here, although the weather forecast was pretty threatening, so it could be busier on sunnier days! Pick up the bridleway and then keep the reservoir on your left for a circular walk of around an hour.
The path along the bridleway is wide, level and well surfaced, which lasts for just shy of half of the circuit. The path then became a bit wilder, with tree roots growing underfoot, and required a bit more clambering from side to side to get from A to B!
This walk was perfect for a nice easy stroll. It took us just under an hour and required next to no effort, as it was flat nearly all the way around. The other bonus was that it is generally well covered by tress, so even when it started spitting towards the end we didn’t get too wet!
Considering that this walk is really not that far from big urban centres like Sheffield, there’s a wonderful feeling of being miles away from it all. When we first arrived we actually spotted two deer crossing the road – I bet this is a fantastic walk to have on your doorstep.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This walk is great for letting your dog have a run around off the lead, as there are no livestock, but you might need to keep your eyes peeled for deer! There are no stiles and only one very short section where you need to cross the road.
We did see a few other dog walkers but they mostly seemed like locals – I can’t imagine many other visitors would have been out and about with the weather forecast as it was! We let Coal off on the bridleway but put him back on when the path was twister and windier as we couldn’t see if there were any other dogs about to pop up around the corner. However if your dog is non-reactive and has solid re-call you could probably keep them off the lead nearly all the way around.
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