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Near you
Ladybower ReservoirPhoto Rory Tucker / Unsplash
Dammed valleys and drowned villages — working water that became landscape. 47 in the Albion Guide.
EnglandEast MidlandsEast of EnglandNorth West EnglandElsewhere
ScotlandCentral ScotlandHighlands and IslandsElsewhere
WalesMid WalesElsewhere
Quiet canal-feeder reservoir near Byfield with a lakeside path, fishing and sailing in the far south-west of the county.
Northamptonshire
The middle of three Derwent Valley reservoirs in the Peak District, its stone dam a Dambusters training ground below Bleaklow.
Derbyshire
A tranquil fishing and birdwatching reservoir below Stoke Dry, once used by the Dambusters for practice runs.
Rutland
The uppermost of the three Derwent Valley reservoirs in the Peak District, its stone dam set deep among the moors below Bleaklow.
Dambusters crews trained over the dams and drowned villages of this Derwent Valley reservoir in the Peak District.
Large reservoir north of Northampton ringed by a nature reserve, cycle track and sailing water, with wide open views.
In England's smallest county, this vast reservoir is a birdwatching and sailing centre where ospreys were reintroduced.
Near Colchester, this large Essex reservoir is of international importance for wintering ducks, geese and swans.
Essex
Near Huntingdon, this large Cambridgeshire reservoir is encircled by a busy cycle and walking trail and popular for sailing and fly-fishing.
Cambridgeshire
Four Victorian reservoirs built to feed the Grand Union Canal on the Chiltern edge near Tring, now a noted birdwatching reserve.
Hertfordshire
Picturesque reservoir edged by woods and moorland trails in the West Pennine Moors above Chorley.
Lancashire
Handsome reservoir ringed by gritstone edges and RSPB moorland where Saddleworth meets the Peak District.
Greater Manchester
The most secluded of the western Lakeland lakes, roadless along its shores below Pillar and the Ennerdale forests.
Cumbria
England's last golden eagle held on at this remote eastern Lakeland reservoir, which drowned the village of Mardale for Manchester.
Near Littleborough, this canal-feeder reservoir became a Victorian resort, the so-called Weighver's Seaport of the Pennine mill towns.
String of reservoirs below the West Pennine Moors, ringed by walking, cycling and riding trails.
Dammed and raised to supply Manchester, its forested shores run beneath the long ridge of Helvellyn.
The south-east's largest area of inland water, a reservoir on the Kent-Sussex border with a long shoreline path.
East Sussex
South of Bristol, this large Somerset reservoir draws wintering wildfowl and is popular with fly-fishers and birdwatchers.
Somerset
Northern Europe's largest artificial lake, set in Northumberland's vast forest under some of England's darkest night skies.
Northumberland
Gateway to the Peak's northern moors, a lakeside and woodland walk below the gritstone edges west of Barnsley.
South Yorkshire
Two-mile reservoir in wooded hills near Leek, ringed by a shore path and served by a miniature steam railway, its name borrowed by Kipling's parents.
Staffordshire
A remote stone-dammed reservoir at the head of Nidderdale, ringed by open moor and a starting point for walks onto Great Whernside.
North Yorkshire
Popular reservoir below the Roaches with a shore trail, visitor centre and grand views up to the gritstone edge.
Set in the wooded combes of Exmoor, this reservoir is popular for sailing, fishing and lakeside walking.
Supplying Edinburgh from the Moorfoot foothills, this Midlothian reservoir is a noted roost for wintering pink-footed geese.
Midlothian
At Pitlochry, this wooded hydro loch has a dam fitted with a salmon ladder and viewing chamber near the Festival Theatre.
Perth and Kinross
Reclaimed from collapsed coal workings in Fife, it is now the centrepiece of Lochore Meadows country park.
Fife
Named for engineer Robert Thom, this moorland reservoir above Greenock was built to power and supply the Clyde shipbuilding town.
Inverclyde
Enlarged for hydro power, this Perthshire loch is seen from the Queen's View looking west toward the peak of Schiehallion.
Its dam was among the last in Britain built by hand by migrant navvies, high on the moor above Kinlochleven.
Corrour
In Glen Affric, this hydro reservoir scatters pine-crowned islands among the finest scenery in the Highlands.
Tomich
Deep in the Ross-shire hills, this hydro reservoir is ringed by trackless Munros in one of Scotland's emptiest quarters.
Highland
Its raised dam at the head of Glen Cannich is the gateway to some of Scotland's remotest Munros.
In remote Knoydart, a hydro dam raised this reservoir over drowned lodges and old stalking paths.
Dammed for hydro power above Lairg, this long Sutherland loch stretches north-west toward the wild Reay Forest.
Lairg
Beside this hydro loch in the Galloway forest, another Bruce's Stone marks a victory on the Queen's Way.
New Galloway
The lowest Elan Valley reservoir, its dam designed to spill in a sheet across the full width of the valley.
Powys
The highest and largest of the Elan Valley reservoirs, its long dam holding back water for Birmingham in the Cambrian hills.
Built to slake the thirst of Liverpool, this Berwyn-hills reservoir is marked by its Gothic straining tower and long stone dam.
Long reservoir in the hills above Llanidloes, held back by Britain's tallest concrete buttress dam of its era.
Upland reservoir in the Cambrian Mountains below Pumlumon, in a little-visited valley with open access to the hills.
Ceredigion
Large reservoir in a wooded valley with a lakeside path and good birdwatching, stocked with brown trout.
Supplying Birkenhead from the Denbigh moors, it sits in conifer plantation on the open Hiraethog uplands.
Conwy
Large reservoir in the hills between Usk and Pontypool, with a visitor centre, lakeside trails and watersports.
Monmouthshire
Reservoir on the southern edge of the Beacons with a circular cycle path and the Brecon Mountain Railway along its shore.
Merthyr Tydfil
Remote reservoir among conifer plantations west of Trecastle, with a lakeside walking and cycling loop.
Carmarthenshire
