Langsett Reservoir ~ Easy Walk

Distance Covered:  3.5 miles Time to Complete Walk: 2 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A great walk to complete after a Sunday lunch, very popular with the good folk of South Yorkshire and beyond! Situated on the edge of the Peak District the walk travels the boundaries of the reservoir and then onto the moors and back to the reservoir again. Parking is free at the Langsett Barn car park and it can get busy at the weekend. 

General Safety Tips: It can get muddy after rain - take a walking stick and sturdy boots. The open moorland part of the walk is exposed to the elements - wrap up well! There is a brief climb onto the moors.

The Langsett Reservoir Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough follow the A19 to the M1 southbound towards Leeds. Leave the M1 at Junction 37 just outside Barnsley. Follow the Whitby Road onto the A628 which goes through an industrial estate and then towards the reservoir. The car park is a right turning and is well signposted. There is a cafe called the Bank View Cafe for refreshments after the walk.

Map of the Langsett Reservoir walk

The Walk

Start the walk by heading to the south of the car park near a display notice and past the picnic tables.

Head down the path which leads to the edge of the reservoir.

Make your way along the edge of the reservoir which continues for some time with great views of the reservoir along the way.

Eventually the path climbs up and then down on the left towards a bridge. 

Cross over Brookhouse Bridge.

You need to head left but the gate may be padlocked so instead go through the gate on your right and double back onto the path on the right.

Follow the path ahead which bends around to the top.

At the top, head onto the open Moors with great views of the reservoir below.

At the top of the moor follow the path as it descends to the left.

The path is an easy route to follow as it gradually descends passing the remnants of the North America farm.

Head through a gate.

Follow the stony path down and cross over a stream.

Turn left and follow the path ahead

Head through a gate

Keep on the main path and go through another gate.

Keep ahead on the road until you come to a vehicle barrier

Straight after the vehicle barrier head left up a path to some buildings.

When you come to a road at the top, turn left and follow the road.

Almost immediately, turn right and follow the track ahead.

When you come to a road, turn left and follow the road as it bends to the left.

Keep on the road as it passes the reservoir on your left.

After you cross the reservoir, look for a building with a signpost to your left.

Turn left and follow the path and go through a gap in the wall

Go through the gap in the wall and turn right and head back to the car park

Langsett Reservoir

Langsett Reservoir is in Yorkshire, England, near the villages of Langsett and Upper Midhope, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The reservoir was constructed between 1898 and 1904, and is now managed by Yorkshire Water. Fed by the Little Don or Porter River, it is around a mile long, and supplies water for Sheffield and Barnsley via the Langsett Treatment Works

Construction of the reservoir began in 1898, the logistics of getting the workforce and materials to Langsett caused great difficulty as most of them came up from Sheffield. This involved a journey over four different stretches of railway line, the first leg was from Sheffield Midland Station to Deepcar, this was followed by a journey to Stocksbridge on the Samuel Fox and Company private line. From the Samuel Fox steelworks a new one mile long line was built to reach the Underbank Reservoir to join up with the Water Authority track up to Langsett Reservoir.

The reservoir is 125 acres (51 hectares) in area with a depth of 97 feet and has a holding capacity of 1,408 million gallons, making it the largest of the water supply reservoirs in the immediate Sheffield district. The catchment area is the Langsett Moors to the west and this covers an area of 5,203 acres (2,105 hectares). The embankment is 1,156 feet (352 metres) long with a height of 117 feet (35 metres) from the bottom of the old river bed. The embankment is 720 feet (219 metres) wide at the bottom tapering to 36 feet (11 metres) at the top and contains 900,000 cubic yards of infill in the puddle wall and concrete trench, making it one of the largest earth embankments in Great Britain. The minor road (Midhope Cliff Lane) which runs across the embankment is thought to be the longest single carriageway of any reservoir in Great Britain. The embankment road has a sharp bend in it as it joins the A616 main road, this was a last minute change in construction plans, as keeping it straight would have meant the demolition of the Waggon and Horses public house. The reservoir was completed in 1904 when Alderman T.R. Gainsford closed the valve in the Langsett tower and the reservoir started to fill up, he was then presented with a golden key by the engineer William Watts.

Local depopulation was used in the early part of the twentieth century to improve the water purity, and six farms were abandoned these included Brookhouse farm and North America farm, the last farmer left around 1907. The ruins of North America remain to the south-west of the reservoir even though it was used for target practice during the Second World War. In 1962 conifers were planted around the reservoir as shown on the map, with the aim of providing a habitat for many species of indigenous wildlife. This plantation is called Langsett Woods. In recent years the woods have been restructured with most of the coniferous trees being felled and being replaced by oak and birch trees in an effort to create a new upland oak woodland. In 2007 a pond was created near Brookhouse Bridge at the western end of the reservoir to help dragonflies, frogs, newts and toads establish new colonies.The Pennine peaks of Pike Lowe (478 m) and Hingcliff Common (358 m) lie to the south and south-west of the reservoir, respectively. The area is used for sheep farming and grouse shooting, and it is popular with walkers,mountain bikers and bird watchers with treecreepers, woodpeckers and owls to be seen in the vicinity.