Captain's Log

Blackmoorfoot Reservoir

It had been just over a year since I’d ticked my last reservoir on my Yorkshire Reservoirs Venture and so I thought it was about time that I made some progress. Today’s primary task would be to tick Blackmoorfoot Reservoir which is located to the west of Huddersfield. I’d previously seen Blackmoorfoot from afar as I’d carried out perambulations around nearby Deer Hill Reservoir. I contrived a plan to park at Blackmoorfoot Reservoir and  head westwards to Deer Hill Reservoir. From there I’d climb up to Shooters Nab before returning to Blackmoorfoot  via the Explorer hill, Meltham Cop. I calculated the walk to be just over 8 miles with only 255 metres of ascent. This sounded a cushy outing, but I wasn’t too bothered; an easy day now and again is a good thing.

I parked on the roadside on a lane that runs alongside the reservoir. There were other cars there and plenty of dog walkers about. A trail has been made along the eastern side of the reservoir and so I went through the entrance to have a peek at it. It was square in shape and a lot bigger than I’d expected. It had an interesting backdrop of Meltham Cop and Meltham Moor beyond it. Shooters Nab are crags on the northern end of Meltham Moor and were clearly visible. I have to confess that it did cross my mind that I could have got in my car and driven home at that point. After all, a tick is a tick. I’m made of sterner stuff though and so decided to crack on and complete the whole walk instead. 

Deer Hill Reservoir

Ten minutes later I wondered whether I’d made the right decision. The first part of my route went along through the village of Blackmoorfoot and along a road for a mile. This turned out to be quite busy with speeding vehicles, but luckily there was a grass verge I could step on to every time one passed. I was pleased when I turned off the road and onto a wide farm track. The track took me towards the northern side of Meltham Cop. The hill looked like it was all fields to the top from this side with no public access. Later in the day I’d walk along its southern side and I hoped I’d have better luck in terms of access. I turned on to Deer Hill End Road, another wide farm track. These tracks looked like they’d once been roads since there were still patches of tarmac here and there. It felt like somebody had just made a decision not to maintain it and it'd deteriorated over time. As might be expected, Deer Hill End Road took me right up to Deer Hill Reservoir. I think the reservoir looks like one of those ‘infinity’ swimming pools. It is high up on the hillside and you just seem to see the sky when you look across it. . 

Shooters Nab

I needed to get to a public footpath on the south side of the reservoir, but there was a high stone wall in the way. I climbed the stone steps of the stile but then found it was missing a step on the other side. This made it quite tricky to get down. If you are supple enough to stick your toes in your ears then you wouldn’t have had a problem. Personally, my hamstrings start pinging as soon as my leg swings 20° from the vertical. Somehow I managed to rock climb  my way down. The next problem was that the public footpath shown on the OS map went through an area so boggy that even Bear Grylls wouldn’t have attempted it. Looking at the map, the footpath then doubled back, to the top of the hillside above me. I could see a vague track where people had just gone straight up the hillside. It seemed like the best idea and so I started climbing. It was a steep ascent, but it didn’t last long and the terrain soon levelled out. I followed a broken stone wall towards Deer Hill. The terrain was a bit heathery, but it wasn’t too bad. 

One thing to bear in mind for this walk is that members of the Lydgate Rifle And Pistol Club sometimes feel the bizarre need to fire their lethal weapons at targets situated below Shooters Nab. They let you know when they have these urges by raising red flags at their establishment at the west end of the reservoir. I noted that there weren’t any red flags flying today when I made my ascent from the reservoir. Even so, I steered clear of the actual edge of Shooters Nab so the only way they could hit me would be by using artillery. The crags have been quarried in the past and so the actual edge is set back. This means you don’t often get a view of the rifle range anyway. Another thing to note is that on my old OS map the area around Deer Hill Moss (south of Shooters Nab) is labelled as a Danger Area (shooting again). I saw some signs up today saying you shouldn’t venture into the area. The Danger Area doesn’t appear on the latest (online) map and so I wonder if this area is now open and nobody has bothered to take down the signs. Despite all these concerns the views from the top down towards Marsden were excellent. I made my way over to Hind Hill in the hope that I’d get a view of the pretty Butterley Reservoir, but it was tucked away in the Wessenden Valley far below. I followed an obvious track that dropped down off Hind Hill to the Deer Hill Conduit to the north. 

Meltham Cop

There are quite a few water capture conduits in the Pennine Hills, but a lot of them have become overgrown with vegetation and fallen into disuse. At least the Deer Hill Conduit was still flowing with water. I followed it along the contour of the hillside until I reached the rifle club. There was still no red flag flying. I walked around the northern edge of Deer Hill reservoir and field hopped my way back to Deer Hill End Road, which I’d walked along earlier this morning. Almost immediately I transferred to a bridleway with the curious name of Hassocks Road. This descended until I came to another conduit. The Victorian civil engineers must have been able to retire early with all the overtime they did building these reservoirs and conduits. I followed a path along this conduit towards Meltham Cop. I could have followed the conduit all the way back to the Blackmoorfoot Reservoir, but I diverted on to another bridleway that was higher up on Meltham Cop's hillside to see if I could find a way to the top. I would have been better staying on the conduit path. There was a double barbed stone wall that prevented access to Meltham Cop from the bridleway. Even if I’d managed to get across that barrier, the southern side of the hillside was covered in gorse. Meltham Cop was going to be one of those Explorer hills that is just inaccessible. 

Return

'Seen anything interesting?’ An old fellow was peering through binoculars on Blackmoorfoot’s southern dam. ‘There’s about a dozen Whooper Swans over the other side’ he replied. I had seen them this morning, but they’d  been too far away for me to identify them. It don't often get to see Whooper Swans. I wished him luck with his spotting. I joined the trail on the eastern side of the reservoir. There was a wonderful view westwards over the reservoir with Meltham Copy on the other side and Meltham Moor beyond that. The trails and roads were busy with people. Nearly every one of them had dogs too and so I was careful where I stepped. 

The walk took about four and a half hours and so it really was a bit of a cushy outing. I enjoyed the contrast with the footpath/bridleway walking between the reservoirs and the open moorland on Meltham Moor. It was a shame I couldn’t get up to the summit of Meltham Cop, but at least I got a new Yorkshire Reservoir tick. .