The Ram Pond, Mag Clough

This is a very pretty pond, best in spring when the many varieties of rhododendron are in bloom. The pond is fed by a multitude of springs issuing from the banks surrounding it - like the one which cascades into it on this photograph, just above the clump of reeds in the pond... ok, so maybe you have to know it's there to be able to see it!. The water then overflows into the Magclough Brook, to the right of this photograph, over a rather larger waterfall.

My mum and her family called it the “Ram Pond” because as well as being an ornamental lake it also provided a head of water for a hydraulic ram supplying a water supply to Stoke Quarry. The hydrodynamics of the system were complicated, and since it was originally engineeered the design has been reimplemented further downstream, with a secondary pond, built in the 1980s.

Please note there is no longer any public access to this area.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)