Would all observers please note that there is no public access to Llanishen reservoir. There is a small authorised group who are allowed access to monitor wildfowl and carry our WeBS counts and Rob Thomas is one of that group. This access was specially negotiated with Celsa and the security people, and NRW. Any other access is not allowed and anyone doing so will be trespassing. The dog walkers get through a hole in the fence and are trespassing, and also risk disturbing the birds that do turn up there . The security people are authorised to request anyone other than those authorised, to leave immediately. Basically, it is impossible to view Llanishen Res without trespassing. Lisvane is still OK and as I understand it, you can view it from the car park. We would therefore ask that people do not attempt to get in to view Llanishen Res otherwise you will be jeopardising the limited access that has been negotiated. Obviously this is frustrating when a good bird turns up but this is the situation.
Glamorgan Bird Club 
Fair enough John, we’ll abide by that..tomorrow morning’s weather looks pretty grim anyway! Not being clued up with the current situation at the res..why do the present owners not allow public access?
Hi John, Some points about your message. Firstly you cant walk round Lisvane. However you can ask the security guard to open the gates to allow you access. It is then possible to view Llanishen from the south side of Lisvane. He may also open Llanishen`s gates to allow access. He was pretty accommodating for the BNG.
Secondly there`s no risk of disturbing the birds as there is a perimeter fence that stops people going down onto the the res floor.
Thirdly you say this is the situation at the moment. Does this mean there may be some development in the near future to change the situation. I`d be happy to pay a small fee for a permit to access both reservoirs especially if they close the access points and stop all the dog walkers. I`m not exaggerating when I say there must be more than 100 people who walk their dogs around Llanishen every day so to say its frustrating is quite an understatement. I can think of a few other words that I would use. Thanks Alan
Sorry about the Lisvane mis-info Alan – I haven’t been there for ages. I’ll correct my post. My ref to “at the moment” wasn’t meant to imply any change in the pipeline. For Tony & Graham – basically it’s a privately owned site [by Celsa, the Tremorfa steel works people – the reservoirs were originally built to supply water to the steel works in Cardiff] and they don’t want anyone in there. A bit like Eglyws Nunydd Res by Port Talbot, where public entry is now not allowed.
Thanks John,
To go or not to go, that is the question?! Not sure if it’s worth chancing that the security guard will allow us access at Lisvane? Plus will probably get a good soaking if we go and my old joints will probably pay the price for that as they don’t run as smoothly as they used to. Would put up with that though if we were allowed at least a half decent view of the LTD from the Lisvane end..providing it’s still there of course.
Any thoughts on the matter are most welcome
I really don’t know Tony. haven’t been there for at least a couple of years so I don’t really know what the layout is. Alan above says in his post that you can see some of Llanishen res from the Lisvane Res end, but whether that covers where the LTD is I couldn’t say. Sorry I can’t be of more help. To be clear I wasn’t trying to tell anyone off here, just clarifying the situation.
Don’t think we’ll bother going, at least not tomorrow. Hopefully the LTD will hang around for a bit and maybe someone can post saying if it can be seen from Lisvane res.
Thanks anyway.
Appreciate that you wasn’t trying to tell anyone off.