Heaton Park Reservoir is a granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 sided reservoir in the North-West of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, on the border between the City of Manchester and Bury

Bury

Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...

 and is owned by United Utilities

United Utilities

United Utilities Group PLC is the UK's largest listed water business. The Group owns and manages the regulated water and waste water network in the north west England, through it subsidiary United Utilities Water PLC , which is responsible for the vast majority of the group's assets and...

, and can be found within the grounds of Heaton Park

Heaton Park

Heaton Park, covering an area variously reported as , 247 hectares, , over and is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, England and one of the biggest municipal parks in Europe. The park comprises the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall...

. Heaton Park BT Tower

Heaton Park BT Tower

Heaton Park BT Tower is a telecommunication tower built of reinforced concrete close to the banks of Heaton Park Reservoir, at Heaton Park, Manchester, England...

 lies on the banks of the reservoir, which is close to Junction 18 of the M60 motorway

M60 motorway

The M60 motorway, or Manchester Orbital, is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It passes through all Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton...

.

An aqueduct carrying water from Haweswater, in the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

, to Manchester terminates at Heaton Park Reservoir. The aqueduct was inaugurated in June 1955, is 82 miles (132 km) in length and carries up to 100 million impgals (454,609 m³) of water per day under the force of gravity.

In 2008, a £3.5 million Ultra-Violet (UV) disinfection plant was installed at Heaton Park water treatment works to meet water quality requirements. The UV building was designed to nestle within the embankment of the existing service reservoir.

Ornithology

The reservoir is known for its wintering wildfowl. Amongst the most recorded are Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

The Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, is a medium-sized diving duck with a population of close to one million birds.- Description :The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill. It has an obvious head tuft that gives the species its name.The adult female is brown with paler...

, Goldeneye

Goldeneye (duck)

Goldeneye are small tree-hole nesting northern hemisphere seaducks belonging to the genus Bucephala. Their plumage is black and white, and they eat fish, crustaceans and other marine life....

, Goosander and Common Teal

Common Teal

The Eurasian Teal or Common Teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian Teal is often called simply the Teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range...

. Other, less common sightings included the Lesser Scaup

Lesser Scaup

The Lesser Scaup is a small North American diving duck that migrates south as far as Central America in winter. It is colloquially known as the Little Bluebill or Broadbill because of its distinctive blue bill...

, the Ring-necked Duck

Ring-necked Duck

The Ring-necked Duck is a smaller diving duck from North America.The adult male is similar in color pattern to the Eurasian Tufted Duck, its relative. It has a grey bill with a white band, a shiny purple head, a white breast, yellow eyes and a dark grey back...

, the Slavonian Grebe

Slavonian Grebe

The Horned Grebe or Slavonian Grebe, Podiceps auritus, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. The Slavonian Grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater...

, the Black-necked Grebe

Black-necked Grebe

The Black-necked Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, known in North America as the Eared Grebe, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It occurs on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.-Taxonomy:There are three subspecies:*P. n...

, the Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck

The Long-tailed Duck or Oldsquaw is a medium-sized sea duck. It is the only living member of its genus, Clangula; this was formerly used for the goldeneyes, with the Long-tailed Duck being placed in Harelda...

, the Leach's Petrel and the Honey Buzzard

Honey Buzzard

The European Honey Buzzard , is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers....

. Due to a nearby landfill site

Landfill

A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

, the reservoir also plays host to a large gull population including Yellow-legged Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

The Yellow-legged Gull , sometimes referred to as Western Yellow-legged Gull , is a large gull of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species...

s, Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull

Caspian Gull is a name applied to the gull taxon Larus cachinnans, a member of the Herring Gull/Lesser Black-backed Gull complex.- Description :...

s, Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

The Iceland Gull, Larus glaucoides, is a large gull which breeds in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland, but not Iceland, where it is only seen in the winter. It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the eastern USA,...

s and Kumlien's Gull

Kumlien's Gull

Kumlien's Gull, Larus [glaucoides] kumlieni, is a large gull which breeds in the Arctic regions of Canada. It is migratory, wintering from Labrador south to New England and west across the Great Lakes...

s.