Saddleworth Moor

Saddleworth Moor is a wide upland plateau in the Peak District National Park, north-west of Oldham. It sits above 400 metres and forms part of the Dark Peak. The Pennine Way skirts its eastern edge while the A635 road crosses the moor from Greater Manchester into West Yorkshire. Gritstone edges rise above deep cloughs cut by fast streams. Dry-stone walls divide small fields on the lower slopes where scattered farmsteads stand. Blanket bog covers much of the moor, with cottongrass and patches of heather and bilberry. Heather and crowberry grow among the peat that has formed over nine thousand years. Four reservoirs—Dovestone, Yeoman Hey, Greenfield and Chew—lie to the east, built between 1880 and 1914. Chew Reservoir once held the record as the highest reservoir in Britain. A tramway bed used during its construction can still be seen. The moor has been the scene of notable events. In 1949 a BEA plane crashed here, killing twenty-four people. Between 1963 and 1965 the serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley buried four of their victims on the moor. Searches continue for the body of Keith Bennett, missing since 1964. Wildfires in 2018 and 2019 burned large areas, drawing military support. The reservoirs and surrounding moorland offer walking routes and views across the high Pennines.