Down The Plughole

After years of being on my hit list, I finally made it to Ladybower reservoir in the Peak District last week to see the famous “plugholes” in full flow, following the recent bout of wet weather. Prior to this trip we had only made it to the reservoir on one previous occasion and, being a weekend in summer, it was packed and the water level was much lower.

With a few days off work, we headed over and, after following the water levels online for the previous week, was more than happy to see the overflow spillways were in full flow.

I believe the drop is about 20m down to the base of the dam, where the overflow emerges and the noise coming from them was actually quite unsettling.

Dodging the rain I was luck to get an hour just before the end of the day when it was calm and dry, and using my 10 stop filter, I was able to slow my camera shutter down to 2 minutes to capture the water as is poured down the hole. The path is quite close to the holes so it makes for a great photo with Bamford Edge in the background.

There are 2 overflow plug holes at Ladybower and I pretty much had the place to myself so came away with a few decent images.

Another one ticked off my photography bucket list!

Ladybower Plughole
Ladybower Overflow Plughole

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