Nidderdale

I took a long overdue excursion on one of the two DalesBus services that passes along the bottom road on Sundays and Bank Holidays. I travelled for two hours to the end of the line, via Otley, Blubberhouses and Pately Bridge, for a first visit to Scar House Reservoir in Upper Nidderdale.

The reservoirs in Upper Nidderdale were built by Bradford Corporation Waterworks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, once the needs of the growing city had outgrown its own watershed.  Scar House Reservoir (main image) was actually built on top of an earlier dam and reservoir, which how lies inundated below.

On this visit I just had a fairly gentle circuit of the reservoir, as far as the next dam up the valley (Angram reservoir) with plenty of small detours to explore old ruins and potential butterfly spots.  There were only four hours before the last bus back, so I didn’t risk an attempt at any of the local hills, although I probably could have comfortably got to to the top of Little Whernside and back.

It turned out to be a mainly overcast day, and quite breezy, so butterflies were harder to come by than I thought, but I did manage to find a few Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small Heath, Large Skipper and Large White in more sheltered spots. I also saw a couple of Common Hawker dragonflies (extra) which are upland/moorland specialists. For birdlife there were plenty of Oystercatcher and Greylag around the reservoir, Red Kite overhead, Snipe, House Martin's nesting on the dam's towers and doubtless many things that I missed.

The dams are certainly impressive feats of architecture (extras), a monument to those that built them and also telling an important part of the environmental history of this part of the world. I look forward to future visits, and also exploring other stopping off points along the 871 bus route. With tickets currently £2 each way - for those of us not yet of bus pass vintage :-) it’s a bargain.