Around Stocks Reservoir

Wednesday 29th August 2012

After my walk of the previous day along the southern valleys of the Forest of Bowland I moved to the nearby village of Slaidburn where I stayed in the wonderful youth hostel in the village. Slaidburn is a quaint old-fashioned village where the 20th Century doesn’t seem to have intruded, let along the 21st Century: a mobile phone signal in Slaidburn is unheard-of. I was spending a couple of nights in Slaidburn so I thought it would be a good idea to do a walk starting from the hostel and, since the upland moors now held little interest for me after the quagmire I’d encountered the day before, an obvious target was Stocks Reservoir and Gisburn Forest. Unfortunately the rains that had kept me away on Monday had now returned so I had a wet start to my walk. Rain at the start of a walk really puts a dampener on your enthusiasm and makes it a real struggle to even start the walk, but the rain didn’t last very long and left a mostly miserable, grey and overcast day. So setting off in the rain I walked across dreary fields past a farmer collecting in his lambs (and losing one of them), until I reached Stocks Reservoir and the nearby Gisburn Forest.

Gisburn Forest (an actual wood) is to the north-west of the reservoir in a major part of its catchment area on the banks of Bottoms Beck. Up till this point the walk had been dreary and uninteresting: I never enjoy walking through fields as I prefer to walk through wilder country that hasn’t been so obviously moulded by man. When I’m walking through farmland I feel as if I’m intruding on someone’s workplace, so I never enjoy it. I had had enough of it at the end of the previous day's walk and now I was starting with it again. Eventually I reached Dalehead Chapel, which was moved from its original site near the village of Stocks-in-Bowland when the reservoir was built and flooded the village. At this point I joined the Stocks Reservoir Circular Walk which I was immediately impressed with as there were excellent paths through the woodland. A delightful walk through mixed deciduous woodland on a path near the road took me to a causeway over the mouth of Bottoms Beck where great views could be seen across the reservoir and the woodland surrounding it.

At a car park I found information about trails in the wood that proved too enticing for me to ignore. Taking a leaflet with me I followed red markers into the wood for an enjoyable walk through Gisburn Forest on a varied trail along wide forest roads and narrow, steep muddy tracks through bright, open, deciduous woodland and under dark, lifeless conifers. I really enjoyed this walk as I dropped down to  Bottoms Beck and climbed over Birch Hill back onto the circular walk. Continuing around the reservoir, I climbed away from Gisburn Forest and up to New House Farm (now a ruin) where I had my lunch while gazing across the valley of the River Hodder. After lunch I descended the steep hill and crossed the River Hodder, which is the main river that feeds the reservoir and continues on the other side of the dam towards Slaidburn. I climbed the hillside opposite past a lovely secluded ravine, Copped Hill Clough, which is so steep it has escaped all signs of human interference leaving a delightful stream sheltered by trees.

The circular walk continued along what the leaflet that I had picked up claimed was the route of an old railway track, probably temporarily built to aid in the construction of the dam. This wide track provided me with an easy walk around the side of Eak Hill with views all the way round the reservoir that only now could I see in its entirety. This track took me almost all the way to the dam, but on the way I heard something rumbling which, at first, I thought was a stream. When I heard it again, more clearly, even though I wasn’t near a stream, I realised it was thunder. As heavy rain began to fall I called to mind the procedure to follow when caught out in the open during a thunder storm. Fortunately the lightning never came close to me so I didn’t have to find a hollow away from trees. Soon the rain stopped again and the clouds that had completely covered the sky all day suddenly started to break so that by the time I reached the dam the sun had come out leaving me with a warm and sunny rest of the afternoon.

It hadn’t been my intention to continue along the circular walk after the dam but since the weather was so good and it was still early I decided to continue along the path beside the reservoir back towards Gisburn Forest. The path took me through a small wood before reaching a delightful wildflower meadow that despite being past its prime still had a wonderful display of wild flowers that spilt over onto the nearby roadside. I had now reached Dalehead Chapel again which left me with that dreary walk through fields back down into Slaidburn, but the bright sunshine had now transformed the walk so that I had a leisurely, relaxing stroll all the way back into the village. This was a mixed walk, but I enjoyed walking through Gisburn Forest and along the old railway track overlooking the reservoir (even when it was raining). The walks through farmland were very depressing, but the gorgeous sunshine at the end of the walk was a surprise bonus that I didn’t feel I or the walk deserved. Overall, though, I think you’ve got to say I enjoyed this walk.