Out here in The Peak District you need to choose the right time to walk with the weather. It is best to carry extra fleeces in your rucksack and waterproofs just in case the weather changes. Here on the moors it can suddenly change and cause problems. I have walked out here, setting off on a lovely crisp morning round Langsett and finished up battling it back to the car park in the afternoon in a blizzard when the foot path has been obliterated with snow and then fighting my way home on the icy roads. Don’t let this put you off just choose the right time of the year and follow the weather forecast and enjoy a new experience.
The walk I have chosen is round The Langsett Reservoir to North America, then over the moors and down to the Little Don river up through the woods and back to the start.
The Walk Distance: 4 miles
Map: OS Explorer OL1 - The
Peak District (Dark Peak Area)
Starting point: Langsett Barn
Car Park (GR 211004)
How to get there: Langsett lies on the A616 approaching from the Stocksbridge Bypass The Peak Park Car Park (Langsett Barn) is on the left after the village. Refreshment stop: Bank View Café at Langsett. These Tearooms are popular with walkers and cyclists, so you will feel at home. If the tea-room is closed there is a Pub opposite.
The Route
1. Leave the car park by the path that takes you by the side of Langsett Barn, which leads you past the toilets on your right to the road. Follow the road down between the cottages to the pub. Turn right and follow the footpath down to the road on your right. Here you turn right and walk over the reservoir until you come to the wood on your right at the end of which you will see a bridleway to you right. Follow this until you come to a path which goes to the right which you take. This will take you up to Upper Midhope.
2. Bearing left towards the buildings across a concrete area you will see a path to the right between two buildings. Taking this path down the grass track you will reach a road, turn right and go through the iron gate and follow this cart track straight on with the view of Langsett reservoir in front. Follow this track round to the left with the wood on your left and eventually you come to a bridge over Thickwoods Brook. You then begin to ascend with trees on your right and the moorland to the left. This takes you up to a gate which you pass through. In front you will see North America (the remains of a farm). North America is, or was, North America Farm. In years gone by, farms were often called after faraway places and this is probably what happened here. When the reservoir was constructed at the start of the 20th century, the farms roundabout were all emptied as the water authority did not want the water destined for Sheffield to be polluted in any way. As a result, the family that lived here would have ha
d to move on.
3. Follow the path for about 600 yds through the heather until you come to where the path joins another. Here you turn right and follow the rough path down the hill. This eventually brings you down to a bridge over the Little Don river which you cross.
To your right you will see the reservoir. Ascending the hill you come to woodland.
Follow the path straight on until you come to where two bridle-ways cross. Here you
turn left, when you reach a bridlegate which takes you out of Yorkshire Water’s
Langsett Reservoir Woods Access Land.
4. Continue between the plantation on your left and a field on your right. Follow the track round to the left, still with the wood on your left. This brings you to an old stone outbuilding (‘Swindon’ as shown on the OS map). Turn left here and go over the stile, into the woodland. Going forward, through the trees you get the smell of the pine needles as you descend gently to cross a small stream. Ascend the narrow path to the point where you passed earlier, to cross over onto the path opposite. Follow this path and it will then lead you back to the car park. Taking you through woods and giving you views of the reservoir between the trees. I hope you enjoy the walk which gives you a taste of the rugged, bleak and vast area of the Peak District. This walk can be done either way but I think this the best because of the sharp gradient from the little Don bridge.