A Walk around Fernilee Reservoir, Goyt Valley

A damp day with periods of light rain, drizzle or mist but milder than recent weeks. We parked in a layby on the road from Buxton past Whitehall and followed the footpath leading down steeply for a short distance towards the River Goyt. Here there was a continuing track with a ford across the river but after checking the map, Karen and I realised that we should have followed a footpath crossing our route about 15 metres behind us.

 Catkins

No problem. We turned around and walked back up a short way and then through a gate with a sign for “The Midshire Way” which led to a path through a wooded area parallel to the river. We were soon in a large, open field and stopped to put waterproofs on as the slight drizzle worsened to light rain.
We followed onwards through fields and wooded sections, with the only others around being people walking their dog. The rain lightened to drizzle, stopped the started again every so often so it wasn't too wet!
We reached Fernillee Reservoir and crossed the dam by walking on the road leading to the opposite side then continued along the path along the side of the resrvoir among an evergreen wood. We found a short section of a low wall and sat there having lunch with a few drips from the trees above.

 Fernilee Reservoir

As we were eating lunch we watched a few Long-tailed Tits flying from a small tree opposite us to grab a few of the insects flying in a small cloud nearby.
After lunch, we followed the path to near the end of the reservoir then through a gate onto a lane.

A Kestrel

We followed the lane for a kilometre and a bit then leaving the lane, we followed a path uphill and then along another narrow lane. By now the rain and drizzle had stopped but the cloud had lowered and we lost any chance of a view with surrounding mist. We continued along the path until we reached the gritstone crag called Windgather Rocks.

It was now also quite windy and we dropped down to the foot of the crag and after finding a sheltered spot, we had another break and finished off our hot drinks. Resuming the walk we followed along the top of Taxal Edge then dropped down towards the village of Taxal.
From Taxal it was only a short distance back to the river Taxal and a footbridge to lead us back to the short steep section back to the layby where we had begun.

I wore Paramo Cascada trousers, Paramo Third Element jacket, Contour Navigator boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.