Darland's Lake Nature Reserve is a nature reserve south of Totteridge

Totteridge

Totteridge is an area of the London Borough of Barnet in north London, England. It is a mixture of suburban development and open land situated 8.20 miles north north-west of Charing Cross....

 Village in Barnet, 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...

. It is owned by the London Borough of Barnet

London Borough of Barnet

The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 331,500 and covers . It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east and Enfield to the...

 and was managed from 1971 by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust

Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust

Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust is a registered charity located in St Albans and is one of the 47 local Wildlife Trusts spread across the whole of the UK....

, and more recently by the borough council. In 2007 the council spent £215,000 on repairing the dam and other works, and then proposed leasing the reserve to the Wildlife Trust.
The site was once part of Copped Hall, an estate dating from the sixteenth century. From 1780 it was occupied by William Manning MP, and his son Cardinal Manning was born there. Darland's Lake was created as an ornamental lake by damming Folly Brook

Folly Brook

Folly Brook is a 2¼ mile long brook in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a tributary of Dollis Brook, which is a tributary of the River Brent, which is a tributary of the River Thames....

, probably planned by William Manning's wife, Mary, with advice from Humphry Repton

Humphry Repton

Humphry Repton was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of the 19th century...

.

The lake is very shallow, with extensive reed beds, and the reserve also includes woodland. It has a diverse range of breeding birds and eighteen species of mammal, including stoat

Stoat

The stoat , also known as the ermine or short-tailed weasel, is a species of Mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip...

 and weasel

Weasel

Weasels are mammals forming the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. They are small, active predators, long and slender with short legs....

. It is also of value for grass snakes, amphibians, fungi and invertebrates.

Folly Brook and Darland's Lake Nature Reserve are together designated a Local Nature Reserve

Local Nature Reserve

Local nature reserve or LNR is a designation for nature reserves in the United Kingdom. The designation has its origin in the recommendations of the Wild Life Conservation Special Committee which established the framework for nature conservation in the United Kingdom and suggested a national suite...

, Borough Grade 1. Darland's Lake was formerly designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but the designation was withdrawn when it was discovered that the rarest plants had been introduced.

Access is by a path from The Close, Totteridge Village. A footpath, which starts close to the reserve noticeboard, follows Folly Brook to its junction with Dollis Brook

Dollis Brook

Dollis Brook runs through the London Borough of Barnet in North London. It is a tributary of the River Brent, which is itself a tributary of the River Thames. The Dollis Valley Greenwalk follows almost all of Dollis Brook, apart from a short section at the beginning which passes through private...

.