I’m going back 2 weeks now to our trip around Rutland Water. The main point of visiting this area was to go around this reservoir.
Built in the early 70’s the area lost Lower (or Nether) Hambleton and much of Middle Hambleton (some of which survives as the promontory jutting out into the reservoir (an extra 7 miles on your bike ride if you choose to take it – we drove another day!) At low water it is still possible to see the foundations of some of the buildings that were demolished (which included a mediaeval cottage…)
You can read here about some of the dwellings that were lost – quite an interesting read (if a bit long..!)
The reservoir is now a bustling and well used leisure area. The day we cycled around it we were most certainly not alone – they were hundreds of others cycling or walking the route (perhaps not all the way around though!), as well as hundreds more enjoying the facilities available around the water or sailing, kayaking or paddle boarding on the water.
It was wonderful to see so many people out and about enjoying the big outdoors 🙂
One day we will have a go on that obstacle course 🙂Parking was fairly reasonable at £6 for the day – you can purchase an all day ticket for £6 which allows you to park in different car parks around the reservoir. See here for a map showing the different areas.
We parked at Whitwell, where the obstacle course is situated as well as a couple of cafes, toilets (of course), a climbing wall, cycle hire and The Rutland Belle departs from here over to Normanton (see the main photo for the church). The church here can be visited and is available for weddings etc.
Unfortunately there are no public areas for launching your own kayak, and there are lots of rules to be followed.
The cycle ride itself is very pleasant, a mixture of concrete, woodland and gravel paths with a couple of, very short, sections on the road (no problem at all); it’s punctuated by a number of gates to negotiate and, surprisingly, quite a few uphill sections (although you do, of course, have the downhill sections as well).
We took sandwiches with us but if we ever do this again would stop for lunch at The Horse and Jockey at Manton. There were several cyclists here and it did look rather nice 🙂
We saw quite a few campsites as we cycled around, but on exploring them we found that none of them offer facilities (by which I mean toilets) – not for tourers anyway, maybe for tents. Some of them looked really nice, so it’s a real shame that none are suitable for us. Maybe for a night or 2 I suppose…
Here’s a couple more pictures from our day.
Before moving onto the Grand Prix we had 2 more days here which were spent visiting my cousin in Caythorpe and visiting Oakham with it’s unexpected castle! I will tell you about these in my next post.
turnrightoutofportsmouth 
Debbie here – sounds like a great day out, however, I read about the lost villages at the link, and it’s quite heartbreaking to see all those lost cottages, and upset residents, what a terrible upheaval for them.
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Hi Debs. Yes it is isn’t it? Especially the medieval cottage that should talky have been rebuilt elsewhere. Did you read about the residents who ended up wiring fir the water company and whiting the new surroundings? X
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