Northern Europe's largest man-made lake, ringed by forest in the Northumberland hills under some of the darkest skies in England
Kielder Water is a huge reservoir in the hills of west Northumberland, finished in the early 1980s and, by volume, the largest man-made lake in northern Europe. It was built to supply the industrial North East with water, its long arms filling a valley now wrapped in Kielder Forest, the largest planted woodland in England. A 26-mile shoreline route, the Lakeside Way, runs the whole way round for walkers and cyclists, and the water is used for sailing and fishing. The Kielder Dam holds it all back at the eastern end, near the village of Falstone. What sets the area apart most now is the night: Kielder lies at the heart of one of Europe’s largest dark-sky reserves, with the Kielder Observatory up in the forest running public stargazing evenings.
