Carsington Water

Carsington Water is a huge reservoir in Derbyshire which was opened by the Queen in 1992. As one of England’s newest reservoirs, it was carefully designed to be both a reliable source of fresh water and a visitor attraction. Next to the large car park is a visitor complex including a ‘water museum’, cafe, restaurant and small shops. Other nearby buildings house the sailing club and a water sports hire centre. Carsington is a great place to visit on a nice day and there’s lots to do, however much time you have.

There are various walks you can do from the visitor centre. The shortest and simplest is the one to the man made ‘island’ which sticks out into the reservoir. Here you’ll find bird hides, picnic tables and a mound surrounded with large stones. It looks like the kind of stone circle that a group of druids might build and was originally designed to offer different views of the site by looking through the holes in each one. Now the views are somewhat limited as the vegetation on the site has grown. It’s still fun though to walk to the top and back down again.

Other walks include the circular route around the whole reservoir which is around 7 miles long. If that’s too much, you can just walk on it in either direction until you get fed up, then retrace your steps. We prefer the direction that takes you past the children’s play area and across the top of the dam. The play area itself is large and has really good facilities, catering for children of all ages.

Carsington Water takes most of its water from the River Derwent. It’s pumped up to the reservoir using a network of tunnels. The water stored here is used by people in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. It was said when the reservoir was built that it would mean no hosepipe bans in the summer months for the people it served. However, as climate change has brought more weather extremes, that has been proved to be incorrect. In the year 2000, a water-tight ‘Derbyshire Time Capsule’ was dropped into the middle of Carsington Water. Inside are newspaper cuttings, photos and even audio from the local radio station.