Kielder Water — Local services in Great Britain

This place is definitely worth visiting if you enjoy walking/cycling and huge bodies of water scenery. We visited it on a route back from the Lake District, so we had already enjoyed spectacular views that weekend, so we were surprised at how Keilder water compared so favourably. I particularly wanted to visit the area as was fascinated by the history of the flooding of Plashettes and how the reservoir just swallowed up a village and you would never know. We did not walk all the way around the reservoir so did not get across to Plashettes side but did stop off at various stop off points in the car and do walks around those immediate areas as it was a day of inclement weather and we were not fully prepared for the walking trails and off piste routes. It's 26 miles all the way round and would take approx 12 hours to walk it on a good day. We will definitely return as there was so much we didn't get the opportunity to see, and we will take bikes and cycle some of the routes next time. I only gave 3 stars because of the outrageous carparking costs. Basically, unless you pay £5 for the day, which is a perfectly reasonable price for a day, you are charged £2 at EVERY carpark you stop at. As previously mentioned, this reservoir is a big reservoir and extends over considerable miles, so a great many stop off points/ carparks to view various sections. This somewhat spoiled the whole roam free outdoors ethos and it literally felt like we were being ripped off by Northumbrian Water to view an impressive sight which is in a very remote area and certainly not over run with tourists. To pay approximately £12-£14 for half a dozen extremely short stop off points was absolutely outrageous. I also believe if you want to cross over to the far side by car at the castle end, there is a £5 charge, but it's an extremely bumpy road and not suitable for normal cars, only 4x4 vehicles. We did not go that far down. Had paid enough by that point. On a positive note, there is an extremely impressive viaduct at Keilder that it is so worth seeing if you do go. The visitor centre was a huge disappointment. It had nothing except for toilets and a very small gift type shop. The exhibition showing a video of its construction and demolition/flooding of plashettes ( which everyone would want to see) was not available (and this was a bank holiday, so busy day!) Hence, another star was removed! The two dams are worth viewing for sure. The overall vicinity has a remarkable feeling of solitude, yet a lot of people around. It must be the beautiful remote forest location. Overall, when we return, we will park in one spot for the day and pay just once, and cycle as far as we can, hopefully all the way around, but I do understand it's quite hillly in places. Do visit, but be aware of...

Absolutely beautiful lake and area, me and my partner loved going out for drives there. But after today we will be thinking twice about returning, after a very rude man in a Northumbria Water van telling me to move off the bridge, I was only taking photos of our sports car with the scenery. We were spoken to like children (I'm 30 years old!) he could have been nicer about it. So after we moved off it, we look back and what's he doing? ...he's sat there ON THE BRIDGE when he said we weren't allowed to briefly stop there to take a few poxy photos! We weren't blocking the way or anything I don't understand it. Hey! NO stopping on the bridge Mr rude northumbria water man! This was actually the 2nd time we have been spoken to like children at that lake by...

Disappointing. Beautiful location. Fabulous scenery but spoiled by a stupid policy of having parking at ALL sites requiring cash in the form of coins. They do say you can pay on-line but in every location (despite having 5G) no signal was available on 3 different networks. Similarly at the sites where a parking permit was supposedly available from a kiosk- they had none or had no one available to issue them. We came to this are willing to spend a significant amount and left having spent nothing. What a waste of earned revenue. The local tourism board need to take action as we were not the only ones who left...