Yorkshire Walks

The dam of Thruscross Reservoir

It was pretty gloomy and wet this morning when my neighbour, JIm, and I drove to the car park at Thruscross Reservoir (map ref. SE 153573) near Blubberhouses and there was a cold wind when I opened the car door. There was only one other car there and as we put our boots on a lone jogger returned through the drizzle to it. We left the car park at the corner nearest the dam and descended the steps towards the River Washburn where it emerged from the dam overflow. The path joined the access road to the dam and at map ref. SE 156568 we turned off the road on to a track down to a bridge over the river. About 200m beyond the bridge we came to a disused watercourse running above the river channel around the edge of the woods and we followed the path beside the dry watercourse. I think the watercourse was once used to carry water to the pond supplying the mill race for the old mill at Blubberhouses.

We followed the old watercourse to map ref. SE 161564 where we joined a grassy track climbing up through the woods to a fence with a gate and a stile at map ref. SE 163564. Just before the gate we turned left to follow the fence up the slope for a few metres to a stile over into some rough and very boggy moorland pasture. We followed the path up the wall side through the bog for about 1km to the road at map ref. SE 167571. At the road we turned left to walk along the road for about 500m to map ref. SE 166576 where we turned left off the road to join a bridleway across the moor to a road at map ref. SE 156580. Part of the bridleway still has the old paved packhorse route in place. We crossed the road and followed the path through the edge of the plantation to the Yorkshire Water access road. We walked along the access road towards the edge of the reservoir and joined the Yorkshire Water permissive path around the water's edge.

Paved packhorse route near Thruscross Reservoir

We continued on this path around the edge of the reservoir to map ref. SE 146586 at the edge of a conifer plantation where the path turns up the hill away from the water. The permissive path continues across the moor above the plantation to the edge of a valley at map ref. SE 139593 where there is a rocky outcrop and the path descends a steep slope to a footbridge over the river Washburn at map ref. SE 138592. The path then climbs up the steep valley side to a seat at map ref. SE 138591. The path then crosses a series of fields to a farm road at map ref. SE 139585 and goes along the farm road to the road at map ref. SE 137583. Note that this is the Yorkshire Water permissive path and is not the same route as the public footpath marked on the map. At the road we turned left to walk down the hill and cross the reservoir feeder stream to rejoin the permissive path at map ref. SE 139581 and follow the path around the edge of the reservoir back to the car park. The whole route was about 11km and took us about 4 hours to walk including two stops in the shelter of the woodland for some refreshments. By this time the weather had begun to clear and we had a pleasant sunny drive home.

Footbridge over the River Washburn

Climbing up Hanging Moor - very boggy

Crossing the moor to Thruscross Reservoir

Looking towards the dam of Thruscross Reservoir

Rocky outcrop above the River Washburn

Looking up the Washburn valley above the reservoir

Ruined farm in an arm of the reservoir

Storm damage from a few weeks ago

Farmer herding sheep with his quad bike - his collie rode on the back to watch!