Featured Walk: Tittesworth reservoir (and blackberry muffins!)

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Tittesworth. Ash and I have been a handful of times in the past but not for ages. We had a free Saturday last weekend and despite it being a murky day we set off for a walk.

Tittesworth brushes shoulders with the Peak District, sitting on the edge of Leek in a little village called Meerbrook.

Bring some cash as the car park will cost you £2.50 for 2 hours or £4.70 for all day! We spent about three hours so were glad of the choice to pay for all day.

From the car park there’s clear signs for the cafe, visitor centre and walks. We headed off along the “Yellow walk” or “Long trail” as it is named on later signs!

What I love about Tittesworth is that the paths are wide and the signs are super clear and easy to follow. It’s the perfect location for a nice lazy walk when you don’t want to concentrate too much. However be warned, for this reason places like this tend to be very busy with people, children, dogs, pushchairs and bikes alike! The good thing about the fog was that the fair weathered walkers had stayed away, leaving the place fairly quiet.

The walk heads off through a woodland, across a stream and alongside an open meadow with the reservoir nestled down below.

Normally here you get gorgeous views of the roaches… but instead we got glimpses of a murky silhouette. Never mind, it’s not like we haven’t seen the roaches before, it’s just a shame I couldn’t show them to you.

There’s a few diversions for a water’s edge path but we opted to stick on our long walk route.

The variety of environments you pass through around Tittesworth is such a joy. You can take one step from being alongside a meadow into what feels like a dense woodland and then you find yourself on the dam. Keep your eyes pealed for wildlife.

There’s lots of benches dotted around with some big picnic benches situated at nice view points. An added bonus of this walk is that there’s regular dog bins! I know that might be a silly thing to get excited about but it’s such a life saver for adog owners, not having to carry your poo for too long is such a simple advantage. (If anyone doesn’t pick up after their dog around Tittesworth then shame on you!).

After we’d passed the halfway point and climbed up the rather steep (but short) hill, Ash decided he wanted to pick some blackberries. We grabbed a spare poo bag (unscented thankfully) and got picking along the way. My first time picking wild fruit! I found it rather therapeutic actually, plus there were loads!

Just over halfway round you’ll reach the dam and a great view up the length of Tittesworth. Guinness loves charging along the steep grass bank and running along the top of the wall.

Back into the woodland then alongside more grassland areas and you’ll soon reach a farm track and hang a right. You’ll want to stick your dog on a lead here as you’ll quickly be passing through a farmyard. You don’t have to pass through any fields of cattle but it’s polite to put dogs on a lead (as well as being safer).

The track eventually leads onto the road (there is a sign warning you it’s ahead) and you need to turn right and follow the narrow lane for a moment before turning right towards the sailing club. The signs here are a little harder to spot but they’re still evident, look for the ones that say visitor centre if they don’t have the yellow walk marked on them.

You’re on the home stretch now and will pass through more meadows and find yourself lake side. Well when I say lake… there’s something I haven’t told you yet. Titteswoth is pretty empty at the moment! And judging by the grass that’s growing in the bottom I reckon it’s been empty for a little while! But none-the-less it’s still a beautiful walk.

Can you spot the silhouette of the roaches in the photo above?!

4.5 miles (my fitbit agreed with the sign) and 3 hours later we were back to the car with a bag full of blackberries!

We didn’t go in the cafe or visitor centre so I can’t tell you what they’re like, but we had a very enjoyable day! Guinness had a blast charging around off lead for 80% of the walk and he slept for the rest of the evening.

Back home and Ash made some blackberry muffins which were delicious! Mmm mmm mmm! Now that’s a good end to a lovely day… it’s just a shame we didn’t get the rugby result to make it a great day!