Winscar Reservoir curcuit from Dunford Bridge

Hello everyone and thank you for all those feedback!
I just tried to alter the description following them. Unfortunately, the author does not reply so let's see if the update helps otherwise I will unpublish it as we want everyone to be safe. I also upgraded it to a "Difficult" walk.
Thank you for your time.
Enjoy your walks

Date of walk : 27/06/22
Clarity of route description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

I completed this walk with three companions today, 28th June 2022. We are all ramblers and experienced walkers, albeit getting a little long in the tooth now. We all found the walk very enjoyable and plan to include in our rambler walking programme next year. The conditions today were dry but very windy. Indeed, once onto the moor, between point 2 and the Kirklees Way, we found out what it would be like to live on a Wind Farm.

There were, however, three problems with the written description of the route. We parked in the Trans Pennine car park and walked up Don View road to the gated road. When we reached the second gate we discovered that Yorkshire Water has banned all access beyond that point, so had to beat a retreat back to the car park. We then turned left out of the car park and walked up the road to the car park at SE152020, Windleden Lane, at the end of Windscar reservoir dam wall. In future we would park at either the Windleden Lane or Broad Hill car park which would eliminate the climb up the road to the reservoir.

The second problem was at the gate before reaching Dearden Clough. This gate is chained and leaves the option of climbing over. Being bone fide ramblers this was not an option for us so we turned left and followed the fence line up the hill to a very high stile which allowed us to get over the fence and then descend back to the gate on the other side. However we would not recommend this route. We had already passed a stile over the fence before the gate and would, in future, cross at that point and continue to follow the fence, on the reservoir side, until the gate was reached. We would then be able to continue on the described route to cross the clough.

The final problem was a small and obvious one. In (5) it describes "crossing the dam wall to get to Dunford Road which heads back to Winscar reservoir. After a quarter of a mile a road off on the left leads down to a car park" The road off is on the right, not the left.

Date of walk : 09/05/21
Clarity of route description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Clarity of route map : ★☆☆☆☆ Very disappointing
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

No defined signs Map does not correspond to the route Very muddy in places

Date of walk : 24/10/20
Clarity of route description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Walk interest : ★★★★★ Very good

A note, the path from Dunford Bridge TPT car park up from Don view Road has been closed by the waterboard, you instead need to walk left out of the car park and follow the main road until you reach the turning right for the sailing club/res follow this road to the sailing club wntrance where you will find a small wooden gate to the left.

A word of warning to the inappropriately dressed, this is not the walk for you if you are going out after rainfall, waterproof walking boots are a must as a bare minimum!

The route behind the sailing club is HARD particularly if you are carrying a child in a hiking carrier, no real path after a while due to it being tufts with 5inch plus drops, good for sheep not so good for humans, however once this is out of the way and you pick up the path on the other side of the clough it is far more enjoyable.

We did go wrong at one point (user error not map error) and with the previously mentioned very first path now closed this meant our walk was closer to 11 miles, the mile along snailsden edge nearly killed us off though! due to the strong wind and a screaming toddler in his carrier who was very angry at said wind!

all in all a great challenging walk!

Date of walk : 27/09/20
Clarity of route description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★☆☆ Average
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Don't bother with the start - the dam road is indeed now blocked and we just got barked at by a huge dog. Suggest reverse the end of the route as BJAF4G suggests to get to the Winscar Dam. The 'sheep track' past the sailing club is a long chossy marsh section - not pleasant walking at all. We gave up and reversed the route to the dam at Harden, where you can take a gravel road with good view over Winscar to pick up the route from the house with the 'we prosecute trespassers sign' (take permissive path onto the access land up and right at the gate, through an old quarry). From there the Snailsden 'summit' is via a lovely green lane track with great views, and the smaller Snailsden reservoir is a nice spot. If you're short of time there is an obvious shortcut at this point to skip the forest section, which has some further views and is more open than it appears from the edge.

Date of walk : 19/07/20
Clarity of route description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Really enjoyable and varied terrain / landscapes, great views all around about half way through. At the start you can no longer get up the side of the dam, you need to take road up to the sailing club.

Date of walk : 20/07/20
Clarity of route description : N/A
Clarity of route map : N/A
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Tried this walk but there were a number of obstacles !
1. At the end of Don View Road (300 metres from the car park starting point) the route has been blocked - locked fence and No Entry notices. So turn right immediately from the car park and walk up the hill for about 800 metres. Then turn left at the junction ( road to Harden). There is a public footpath which runs parallel to the road and takes you to the road which crosses the dam wall. From here it is possible to resume the original route.
2. The sheep path behind the sailing club is rough walking, but the main problem is a locked Five Bar gate. I think this is to prevent people from crossing the grouse moor as we are approaching the shooting season. However there were no signs to this effect.
3. On reaching the farm near Wetshaw edge ( Keep Out signs in evidence) it is possible to pick up the trail and cross over the moor towards Harden Clough, turn right and head for another dam wall which crosses to the Harden Road. Again , more signs here ,this time COVID related, which say areas closed to enable keyworkers to carry out duties. Here turn right and walk through a car park back to the dam wall at the start of the route.
So an amended route to suit the times !

Date of walk : 24/12/19
Clarity of route description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

We walked the opposite way round as wary we would get mixed up but the map was great. Good walk but very muddy in places and some of atreans needed bit of care to negotiate. Would definitely do it again

Date of walk : 05/08/18
Clarity of route description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Clarity of route map : ★★★☆☆ Average
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

This walk was a lovely walk for a day high on the moors , but sadly the first part of the walk was very poorly defined , once last the back of the sailing club the oath became a little bit of kilter , ( new fencing landmarks ) , once at the gate to Dearden Clough the pathway became totally undefined , we made our way to the waters edge but then from there we were beaten but the body high bracken with no sign of the pathways , we struggled up onto the moor and found our way along the top between the shooting butts. After this the walk wa# a very good interesting walk with amazing far reaching views , but beware the path is very undefined after half an hour until up on the tops again

Date of walk : 04/02/18
Clarity of route description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Walk interest : ★★★★★ Very good

This was a great walk. The weather meant that we had snow on the tops and green grass and trees lower down. A wonderfully varied walk around a bit of Yorkshire that we had not walked before. We did it short of the time set.

OK thanks for the info. We'll recommend long legs and a good musher dog in the walk description then

I actually managed it within the time you said. It was just quite difficult in places. I was walking fast didn't stop for lunch and had a dog to help me along!

Thank you for the feedback on this walk Would you recommend us putting the walk time up to 6 hours? How long did it take you in the end? Thanks!

Sarita
Hikideas Moderator

Date of walk : 07/10/17
Clarity of route description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Walk interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Agree with previous comment as the marshland behind the sailing club was very difficult to cross due to the uneven ground and it was quite wet.

Also difficult to identify the path around the farmhouse. If it hadn't been for the gpx file I think I would have got lost on a couple of occasions.

Date of walk : 13/10/17
Clarity of route description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Walk interest : ★★★☆☆ Average

the first bit round the reservoir (behind the sailing club) is impossible if theres been any rain , its a swamp.