Fontburn Reservoir

Fontburn is a drinking water reservoir situated 10 miles North of Morpeth. It was built in 1905 and is a popular place for fishing, holding Rainbow and Brown Trout.

The area is managed by Northumbrian Water and Northumberland Wildlife Trust and is open all year round. It is the perfect spot to see a wide variety of birds and animals including Lizards, Adders, Red Squirrels and Roe Deer and is a designated local wildlife site.

Another interesting feature of the reservoir is the plughole at Fontburn. I find the plughole terrifying but I'm conquering my fear to tell you about it. The plughole is technically known as a 'shaft spillway', which was built to regulate the water levels on the reservoir by letting out water into the nearby river. There are similar plugholes at Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire which are 24m in diameter and have a drop of 20m.

Once you've finished marvelling at the plughole, you could take the waymarked circular walk around the reservoir, which is around 5.5km. Keep an eye out for the wildlife mentioned before and maybe an Otter or Great Crested Newt. We also bumped into some horses grazing in one of the fields. It's worth bearing in mind, as they were quite intimidating when they were running towards us and nuzzling our pockets for snacks.

Huge thanks to Tim Watkinson for the fantastic photos below.

And the post wouldn't be complete without a little tour from Red5.