Sometimes, there’s nothing better than a reservoir walk. Generally pretty easy both in terms of navigation and effort and with lots of countryside views, they are the perfect choice for a relaxing Sunday stroll. In recent years, however, some of our go to local reservoirs in the Yorkshire Dales have been getting increasingly busy (the horror!). We therefore decided to head north instead of south for once, venturing into the Durham Dales where there are plenty of reservoirs which, we hoped, would be slightly less crowded.
There are so many reservoirs clustered close to each other in Teesdale that we were spoiled for choice. In the end we settled on a simple circuit of Hury reservoir, near Cotherstone. This is a short walk of around three and a half miles, but it can easily be extended to take in neighbouring Blackton reservoir or nearby Goldsborough Hill if you want to walk a little further. The wind was absolutely freezing when we got out of the car so we agreed to stick to the shorter route – fair weather walkers!
Parking is free in a small car park off Gill Lands Lane. Sam was thrilled to find an honesty box selling eggs at £1.50 per half dozen (we bought two), then eggs secured we set off in an anti-clockwise direction around the reservoir. The walk is pretty much completely flat apart from two very short descents where you drop down to cross a bridge – easy peasy. The outward leg of the walk was along grassy paths which were muddy in places (happily not over the boots type of muddy), and coming back we walked along the quiet lane which runs alongside the reservoir. You could skip the road out and walk along the shore on the way back, however the lane was very quiet and we were happy to dry our boots out before we got back to the car.
For the first half of the walk, the wind was blowing directly towards us and the sky was overcast and grey, both of which had a corresponding impact on my enjoyment of the views. They were ‘OK’ but nothing special – especially when the wind is so cold you’ve lost all feeling in your nose and ears. However, by the time we got to the half way point the sun was making a valiant effort to shine, and we finally turned and started walking with the wind at our back. This improved my mood immeasurably and equally my thoughts on the view!
The Durham Dales are underrated if you ask me. Similar to the Yorkshire Dales, with crumbling barns and drystone walls, they feel a lot wilder and more remote than their southerly neighbour. This is highlighted by the total absence of people: often when walking in County Durham, I get the distinct impression that the only other people we see are locals, and tourists totally bypass the area on their way to the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland. We saw a grand total of three people in the hour and a half we were at Hury, all of them tiny dots in the distance and all of them walking a dog.
Dog friendly rating – 3.5/5. I expect this is a popular walk with local dog walkers, especially in summer when it’s hot and you want to have some water on hand to cool your dog off. There are no stiles on this walk and the road section can be avoided entirely, but you do need to keep your eyes peeled for sheep and respect signs asking for dogs to be kept on the lead. Merry spent a good fifteen minutes dragging me all over the shop trying to wolf down as much goose poo as he could, therefore I think in his eyes this ranks as one of the best walks ever!
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