Derbyshire/Peak district
Dambuster Valley
Welcome to the page that covers low flying locations in and around the centre of England, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Peak district. Although low flying training does take place in the Peak district, it is very much hit and miss. Probably the biggest user of these parts is the Hercules training sqn as well as the RAF helicopter force. The Main artery for movements seems to be the Valley that runs through the Derwent Reservoir and to the West of Chesterfield and past Sheffield. This valley is of the type that it is 2 way, so be aware of aircraft travelling in either direction. Most of the images in this section were taken at the 65th Anniversary of the Dambusters raid in May 2008, the Dambusters did use this valley extensively to train for that raid. There will be a future update in this section as well as some newer locations.
Dambusters Link, please click here
This valley looks narrow, but it is wider than it looks, for an Hercules sized aircraft a 300mm is enough, but for fighter sized aircraft you need to be looking for a lens of 400mm.
Avro Lancaster travelling north, taken from Pike Low on the East side of the dam with a 300mm lens
Lady bower reservoir is located approx ten miles to the west of Sheffield on the A57 Rotherham to Glossop road, heading from Rotherham, you will drive right past the reservoir which is split into 2 big lakes, you need to be in the Northern lake that runs North to South. As you pass the southern end of the Northern section you will see a B road running up the western side of the lake, head up this road until you reach the car park near the Dam. You will quickly see that the western hillside is heavily wooded, although there are some bare patches caused by recent tree felling. The Eastern side above the tree line (Pike Low) is the prime position here. It may be tricky in the afternoon sunlight.
below, A Tornado gr4 from 617 sqn (Dambuster sqn) 300mm lens
The event which is described earlier in this section happens very rarely, perhaps every 10-15 years, should you wish to attend a future event should it happen again, be ware that the road is usually closed unless you are one of the lucky 500-600. The reasoning behind this is the lack of car parking for 50 thousand people. All is not lost, if you reasonably fit we have compiled a small guide on how to reach the dam by the back door.
As mentioned earlier, you need to be fairly fit to manage this walk over the moorland which is approx 4 miles each way. A group of the guys from the lowfly.net forum attempted this route for the Dambusters 65th event and it took 1hr 15 minutes going and around 1hr 30 for the return leg. Coming back was slightly more difficult has you had to climb a steady gradient that was around 400 feet and beyond that it was literally all down hill back to the car. To get to the parking up position, in the woodland clearing at Holling dale plantation you need to be on the A57, we traveled from the east and turned north towards the public house at around 4 Miles from the Dam. You will drive past the Pub, you will notice the very large car park, soon after passing the pub you will navigate a very steep down hill section followed by an equally steep uphill section, immediately after you will be at the parking place in the woodland entrance(Free parking as of May 2008) with enough room for around 20 carefully parked cars. For the walk, simply follow the path into the woodland going uphill slightly, the gradient does gradually increase until you reach the summit at around half way, then its down hill. Just a word of caution, this area does tend to get rather boggy, so be careful.