This walk takes you around much of the Nottinghamshire Nature Trust reserve at Idle Valley, a few miles from Retford. The reserve is based around a lake with a visitor centre and cafe overlooking it. You can take shorter walks staying by the lake but my walk follows the longest marked trail, the Kingfisher Walk, which follows the River Idle to the northern end of the reserve. If you are very lucky you could see beavers there.
Start and finish: Idle Valley Reserve Visitor centre. There is a pay and display car park.
Distance: 11.5km including an extra detour at the far end. 10km without it.
The Walk
From the car park go into the visitor centre to take a look at the lake from the large viewing window. Leave the visitor centre and turn right where you will see an information board. Go to this to familiarise yourself with your surroundings. Continue on past it and soon turn right onto a wooden walkway going through the reeds taking you onto the reserve. For most of the walk you follow the Kingfisher Trail which has orange kingfisher waymarks to guide you.
At the end of the walkway you join a firm path going into an area of woodland. There is a junction of paths as you reach the wood where you should bear right. As you go into the trees walk past a play area on the left where children can make dens in the woods. A little further on the path leaves the wood and you find yourself next to Belmoor Lake, the lake you saw from the visitor centre, in an open area with a wavy metal bench on the left.
Carry on along the track going under trees again. Before long you reach the River Idle . A path to the right goes around the lake but our route takes us away from it and you should continue almost straight bearing slightly left. The Idle is immediately to your right with trees alongside it.
The route is easy to follow for the next two miles as you just follow the river. After 500m a path goes off to the left which you should ignore although we will return along it. On the right a fishing lake appears just beyond the Idle. The River Idle appears well named as it lows lazily along. The water is slow but very clear and you can see long strands of weed just below the surface waving gently in the current. This part of the reserve is very quiet and you probably only meet a few other people, if any. The easiest path to walk on is a narrow but firm one that is part of a wider grass track too. There are trees by the river and to your left.
The path has been going east without you really noticing but now turns left heading north again. Near a wood a red waymark indicates a path to the left but again ignore it and stay by the Idle. Eventually you may start to hear the sounds of geese through the trees on the left as you approach a lake at the far end of the reserve. The lake appears properly soon after. At the end of the lake turn left and follow a path alongside the end of the surprisingly large lake. When you reach the far corner of the lake you carry on for for 300m. There you can turn left to head back towards the visitor centre. However, as you have come all this way I recommend having a look at the lakes nearby. On your right is a very wide dusty track. Go onto this. Almost directly opposite is the entrance to a path next to another lake.
Turn left and walk along the wide track for 200m. You reach the entrance to a track on the right. Turn onto this track which is firm and wide. On your left after 100m you can see a lake between trees and bushes. After 400m look for a narrow path on the right under trees and take this. The path goes up to an open area overlooking a lake. There are screens hiding you from the wildlife and low benches to sit on. In fact these benches are a little too low to see over the screens and you will probably have to stand. This area of the reserve is where the first beavers in Nottinghamshire were released two years ago and if you are very lucky you may see them, although I didn’t on my visit. You are more likely to see wildfowl and some rareties have been spotted.
Retrace your steps along the track and the very wide dusty track to the Kingfisher Trail. If you have come from the extra section you turn right from the dusty track and go straight on with trees on the right, a large field on your left and the lake beyond that. The path is straight for the next half mile and is good with just the odd puddle and muddy area which can be stepped around. The track turns right close to a larger clump of trees and then after 500m goes left. In 200m it reaches an area of small lakes, or should that be large ponds. These are on either side of the path and although they have plenty of vegetation around them they can be viewed at several points.
About 150m past them the path goes past an information board and bears right to meet the path you walked along on the way out earlier. You meet the Idle again and turn right to follow it. You retrace your steps to the corner of the large lake where you go away from the Idle. Follow the path with the lake to your left until you cross the wooden walkway and return to the visitor centre. There you can rest after your walk with refreshments in the cafe while observing the wildlife outside.
Walks in Central Nottinghamshire (and Beyond) 
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