Qualla: Burrator Reservoir https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Burrator Reservoir https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir Burrator Reservoir: Introduction https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir/ Photo credit Nigel Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 9 August 1893, on the southern slopes of Dartmoor where the River Meavy threads through a granite gorge, the first stones were laid for a dam that would change the lives of half a million people. Five years later, in September 1898, Burrator Reservoir filled and Plymouth's water troubles were over. The man behind it was Edward Sandeman, Plymouth's water engineer, whose name appears in the city's hydraulic history again and again. The result is one of the most photogenic engineering works on Dartmoor: a granite-faced concrete dam holding back a long, sinuous lake among heathland and tors, where Steven Spielberg later came to film War Horse.

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Image: Nigel Smith | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/gbvp-burrator-reservoir-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Burrator Reservoir: Two Dams, One Reservoir https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir/ Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. Burrator is unusual in having two dams. The Burrator Dam at the southwestern end is the more massive of the pair, built across the Meavy at Burrator Gorge in concrete faced with cut granite blocks. The Sheepstor Dam at the southeastern end, built in 1894, is an earth embankment w...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/gbvp-burrator-reservoir-two-dams-one-reservoir.mp3 0:06 2 full Burrator Reservoir: Raising the Walls https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir/ Photo credit Crispin Purdye, CC BY-SA 2.0. Plymouth kept growing, and by 1923 the city wanted more water. The solution was elegant rather than expensive: raise both dams by ten feet. Work began in December 1923 and lasted nearly five years. Engineers built a temporary suspension bridge near Burrator Dam to keep traffic fl...

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Image: Crispin Purdye | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/gbvp-burrator-reservoir-raising-the-walls.mp3 0:06 3 full Burrator Reservoir: Walking, Wheeling, Fishing https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir/ Photo credit Peter S, CC BY-SA 2.0. The reservoir's road follows the dam wall and threads through the conifer plantation, with frequent pull-offs where walkers and cyclists can leave their cars. Fishing here is for rainbow and brown trout, by permit from the Trust. In the right weather Burrator can feel almost Scan...

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Image: Peter S | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/gbvp-burrator-reservoir-walking-wheeling-fishing.mp3 0:06 4 full Burrator Reservoir: On Screen and on the Page https://qualla.com/burrator-reservoir/ Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. The reservoir has had its turn in the cameras as well as the cameras of weekend visitors. In October 2011 it featured in the first episode of the second series of James May's Man Lab on BBC Two, when Oz Clarke and James May travelled along its edge while staging a mock escape fro...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/p/burrator-reservoir-wp/gbvp-burrator-reservoir-on-screen-and-on-the-page.mp3 0:06 5 full