Viewpoint - Upper Nidderdale

A short feature from 2007 describing photographic opportunities around Scar House Reservoir in Upper Nidderdale. Exclusive to marksunderland.com.

Upper Nidderdale

Upper Nidderdale

Since moving back to Yorkshire and settling not far from the banks of the River Nidd it seemed appropriate that I should venture further upstream and explore what Upper Nidderdale had to offer. Nidderdale is “just” an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, not part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and so is often be overlooked by visitors to the dales. Nevertheless, the journey up the dale from Pateley Bridge is well worth the effort on a late summer afternoon, where you will find scenery as beautiful as the other dales, but hopefully without the crowds of the national park itself.

My first visit to the very top of the dale was for a walk with friends (and without camera gear) was on a glorious day at the end of summer. Our circuit from the car park at Scar House Reservoir down toward Middlesmoor and back was a lovely quiet stroll with few other walkers about. In fact, I don’t think we saw anyone until the footpath crossed farmland where the farmer was at work and children were at play with a litter of sheep dog pups, who bounded over to investigate as we passed by. The tops above the reservoir were swathed in heather in glorious full bloom, so I decided a return trip with camera gear was in order.

When I finally returned (a year later) it was after a prolonged period of heavy rain, which no doubt coincided with the peak of the heather, for it was all but done when I arrived on the first sunny day for what had seemed like weeks (it probably wasn’t that long, but it seems like it when you spend all that time sat at a PC using Photoshop instead of getting out and about). Still, I wasn’t to be disappointed, especially as the sun descended through the afternoon and into the evening, producing some pleasant light on the charming barns and dry stone walls surrounded by lush grass, which proved just as much fun to photograph as those in Swaledale, without being as instantly recognisable. As the heather was past its peak, I didn’t hike up onto the moor above Scar House Reservoir on this visit, but instead walked along to the other of the two upland reservoirs, Angram. I continued around Angram, crossing the Nidd where it is just a small stream above the reservoir, and returning to the Angram dam just as the evening light was reaching its peak and providing some lovely reflections in the water.

Angram and Scar House reservoirs were built to supply water to the Bradford area. Scar House was the last reservoir to be built in the Nidd Valley – work started in 1921 and took fifteen years to complete. A village was built near the dam to house over 1200 workers involved in the construction, the remains of which can still be seen. It is said that this heavy manmade influence on the Nidd Valley was the reason for Nidderdale’s exclusion from the national park on its creation. With the passage of time the reservoirs, and the dams themselves, seem an integral part of the landscape, so this doesn’t seem particularly appropriate anymore, but if it serves to keep Upper Nidderdale “secret” then maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

Location

North west of Lofthouse in Upper Nidderdale. OS map: Explorer 298 Nidderdale. Grid ref: SE 070 766 (Scar House Reservoir car park).