5.8mi Upper Oakdale Reservoir Circular Walk

Oct 16, 2025

3 min read

Updated: 16 hours ago

Upper Oakdale Reservoir lies in Oak Dale to the south of Osmotherley, on the western edge of the North York Moors. Our original 5.8-mile circular GPS recording explores the valley and its surrounding hills. The Komoot map at the top of this article is the route to follow: its recorded start is just south of Osmotherley, not at Kepwick, which was incorrectly named in an earlier version of this article.

Walk at a Glance

Distance: 5.8 miles. The archived GPS track measures approximately 5.79 miles.

Route: Circular walk around Oak Dale, near Osmotherley, North Yorkshire.

Start and finish: Near the southern outskirts of Osmotherley. The exact recorded position is on the original Komoot map above, which should be used for navigation.

Setting: Wooded valleys, surrounding hills and former reservoir landscape on the western edge of the North York Moors.

Parking and difficulty: Neither a specific parking place nor a personal difficulty rating has been independently established for this recorded route.

The Landscape Around Oak Dale

Osmotherley lies at the western edge of the North York Moors, where the higher hills and wooded valleys meet the agricultural country around the Vale of Mowbray. The National Park Authority describes the area as a place with longstanding links to walking, droving and the historic routes across the Hambleton Hills.

Oak Dale is a smaller valley to the south of the village. Its shape has been influenced both by natural watercourses and by the reservoirs built to supply nearby settlements. The recorded walk visits this part of the landscape rather than following a circuit from Kepwick, several miles away.

The original Komoot recording remains the reliable guide to the actual paths. The nearby Cleveland Way and other long-distance routes are part of the wider Osmotherley walking network, but they should not be treated as identical to this particular 5.8-mile loop.

Why Were the Oakdale Reservoirs Built?

The reservoirs in Oak Dale once supplied water to the Northallerton area. The Osmotherley and Thimbleby Village Design Statement, produced by the local parish council with the North York Moors National Park Authority, records that the Oakdale dams served Northallerton until Cod Beck Reservoir was constructed in 1953.

That water-supply history explains why engineered banks and former reservoir structures can be found among the wooded hills. It was practical infrastructure for a growing town, even though the valley now appears much more closely associated with countryside and walking.

Yorkshire Water's published reservoir records identify both Oak Dale Upper and Oak Dale Lower near Osmotherley, rather than Kepwick. The upper reservoir is recorded at approximately Ordnance Survey grid reference SE 472 961, within the wider Oak Dale landscape.

What Happened to Upper Oakdale Reservoir?

The reservoir no longer has the appearance of a large, full water-storage basin. Osmotherley Area Parish Council reported in 2013 that plans had been submitted to remove the leaking Upper Oakdale dam. Local photographs and later accounts record the reservoir being decommissioned and reduced to a much smaller body of water, with the surrounding ground landscaped.

This matters for anyone comparing an older photograph with the present landscape. A large expanse of water shown in historic images may no longer be there. The name Upper Oakdale Reservoir remains useful for locating the area, but it should not be read as a promise of a large reservoir lake today.

The lower reservoir has also been altered over time. Together they tell the story of how local water infrastructure has changed purpose as the region's supply network developed.

Osmotherley and the Hambleton Hills

Osmotherley has a much longer history than its association with reservoirs. The National Park Authority records the village in the Domesday survey as Asmundrelac. It later became a place connected with pilgrims, quarry workers, textile trades and drovers taking cattle south along the Hambleton routes.

The Cleveland Way, Coast to Coast and Lyke Wake Walk all have links with the village. These are separate long-distance routes, not substitutes for the original GPS circuit. The village's history helps explain why there are so many paths and old tracks in the surrounding hills.

The Osmotherley and Thimbleby Village Design Statement also describes the surrounding landscape as a combination of sloping pasture, woodland and open moor. Those different land uses give the western edge of the National Park a character that is distinct from the more open heather moors further east.