Tring Reservoirs: four lakes, a canal summit, and a serious bird list

The four Tring Reservoirs exist because canal boats need water at the summit. Wilstone is the largest; Startops, Marsworth and Tringford complete the set. Together they are an SSSI, managed with Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust, and one of the few places in the borough that feels genuinely away from the A41.

A circuit from Startops End takes in hides, towpath and the chance of herons, terns and, in winter, wildfowl that did not read the county boundary. The Wendover and Aylesbury arms of the Grand Union peel away here, which is why industrial history and nature writing keep tripping over each other.

Parking is pay-and-display and fills on bright weekends. Tring station is a walk along the canal if you want to arrive without a car: longer than the signs imply, prettier than the A41.

The newly renamed Tufted Duck pub in Tring took its name from the reservoirs’ birds. That is either charming or on the nose. The birds were not consulted.