In Search of a Waterfall

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I first saw this waterfall in May 2004 on one of my first walks around the Terraced Gardens at Rivington. At that time, although there were plenty of leaves on the trees to add to the splendour of the scene, there was very little in the way of a waterfall. Now, with the constant rain of the past few weeks there is plenty of water, so I thought I'd pay the waterfall another visit.

I parked my car in the public car park near to the Grammar School, crossed over the road and set off for a 2hr stroll with my two dogs, Brett and Sam.

The grid references are taken from the Ordnance Survey map OS287, West Pennine Moors (courtesy of TrackLogs Digital Maps).


The first part of the walk was an uphill jaunt through the woods at the side of the Grammar School to take me up to the path at Middle Derbyshires.


As you can see from the picture, the path along Middle Derbyshire was pretty squelchy.


Very soon I came to a crossing of paths, where I turned right towards Rivington Hall Barn.


After about 200 yards I turned right again, this time to go uphill towards the Terraced Gardens.


Pretty soon the sound of runing water led me off the path to the left and to the bottom of the stream coming from the waterfall.


Climbing uphill alongside the stream I glimpsed the bottom of the waterfall.


A little higher still gave me the first view of the lower of the two bridges that cross the waterfall.


On reaching the lower bridge I then saw the main part of the waterfall and the upper bridge. There is an information board a little lower down that says that this area is known as The Ravine. It goes on to say, "The Ravine, constructed in 1921, is crossed by several pathways and bridges. Although taking the course of a natural small stream, the waterfalls and pools were cleverly designed to appear completely natural."


By now the light was beginning to fade and it was getting difficult to take hand held photographs so, saving the remaining part of the waterfall for another day I set off back to the car.


This is a video taken at the bottom of the waterfall. Please excuse the rather shaky camera work.


This is a video of the main part of the waterfall, taken from the lower bridge.