A beautiful man-made lake created in the 60's to provide water to the surrounding areas |
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A beautiful man-made lake created in the 60's to provide water to the surrounding areas |
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Ivory Cottage is a couple of minutes walk
from Stithians Lake which is a water sports centre and a
nature reserve as well as our local reservoir. Happily,
for those of you who like water sports, Stithians Lake is
reputed to be the windiest lake in England!!!! Windsurfing, sailing and canoeing are available from the water sports centre next to the Golden Lion pub. All year round, we see the enthusiastic sailors screaming across the lake at phenomenal speed. Wind surfing is particularly popular here as the wind is fairly constant. For those who are first-timers, there is tuition available. Full details are in the cottage. |
The dam
was constructed in the 1960's and some of Carncrees Farm
was compulsorily purchased in order to build the
treatment plant. Around 20 farmsteads were engulfed as
well as several cottages and acres of good farmland.
During drought, the water level can become so low that
some of the houses that were submerged when the lake was
created, reappear.  Little Ambella Farm & East
Menorlue Farm appeared during the 1976 drought. Gate
posts we seen still with their metal fastenings intact
and farm lanes appeared which must have stirred many
memories.In the winter, we often see the dam overflowing - sometimes quite seriously. Don't worry though - we're on high ground. We have some friends downstream who have had to take extreme measures to prevent their property flooding. They now have a channel running across one of their fields to carry the extra volume of water in winter. |
 We take Barney (the dog) for a
walk in the mornings and one winter morning I got the
picture on the right looking across the lake. Sometimes
it is so calm it's like glass. We never take our beautiful area for granted. We are exceptionally lucky to be able to live here. We get a lot of 'twitchers' by the lake as there is a bird sanctuary there which attracts all kinds of wildfowl. Some of which often stop at our quarry for a rest. In fact, we have a small family of mallards at present. |
