Cow Green Reservoir

Cow Green Reservoir is a 2-mile (3 km) long water reservoir built between 1967 and 1971 to supply the industries of Teesside in England.[1]

Cow Green Reservoir
The Dam at Cow Green
Cow Green Reservoir
Location	County Durham/Cumbria (Westmorland) border
Coordinates	54°40′5″N 2°18′30″W
Type	reservoir
Basin countries	United Kingdom
Max. length	2 mi (3 km)

Cow Green Reservoir 02

The reservoir acts as a river regulation reservoir releasing water into the River Tees during dry conditions so that it can be abstracted further downstream. These regulated flows allow six further reservoir levels to be maintained and these in turn provide water for industry and domestic use.[2]

Environmentally, this part of Upper Teesdale is of national importance and the plan to construct this reservoir had been strongly opposed by local conservationists, professional botanists and geologists. Their main concern was the protection of the rich flora and fauna of the district and especially rare alpine plants like the unique Teesdale violet.[3] In the end, about a tenth of this plant's habitat was destroyed by the completion of the reservoir. The remaining area was designated the Moor House-Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve in 1969, from what was previously two separate nature reserves and is England's largest terrestrial such reserve.

The reservoir's southern end, viewed from the dam

The reservoir lies within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and European Geopark. The North Pennines was designated as an AONB in 1988 and became Britain's first European Geopark in 2004.

A short distance downstream from the dam is Cauldron Snout waterfall.

Cow Green Reservoir is also the largest reserve of wild brown trout in the North East.