Full Description
The great city of Manchester, its metropolitan surroundings and
urban fringes provide the setting for the ten splendid short walks, which
embrace the city centre, the green spaces and blue corridors of Greater
Manchester, and the scenic countryside within easy reach of the city. Beginning
amid the grand architecture in the historic heart of Manchester,
the opening walk is a station-to-station route to the modern steel and glass
buildings of Media
City in rejuvenated
Salford Quays. Excellent Transport for Greater Manchester connections are used
to whisk walkers by tram, train and bus to locations from Wigan to Stockport and Ramsbottom to Altrincham.
In
Wigan, old miners' paths and railway trackbeds
lead you through the waterscapes of The Flashes on a walk with an unexpectedly
rural feel. Pennine views are the objective on the Turton
Tower ramble from Jumbles Country
Park. Explore the Irwell
valley on foot then return from Ramsbottom via steam train, or enjoy the
lakeside cafés at Hollingworth in a lovely shore circuit. Routes at Dove Stone
Reservoir and Etherow Country Park
enable you to experience Manchester's
corner of the Peak District. Four rural pubs and a National Trust café dot the
route through the landscaped deer park of Dunham
Massey, and you can follow winding nature reserve trails around the oasis of Sale Water
Park.
Contents
Manchester
to Salford Quays
This station-to-station walk is the perfect
introduction to the great city of Manchester.
You'll pass Chetham's School of Music, the National Football Museum and the
15th-century cathedral, before seeing the Royal Exchange, St Ann's Square and
then the Gothic town hall and Central Library, said to be inspired by the
Pantheon in Rome. The Bridgewater Canal eases the route through Castlefield to the Manchester Ship Canal,
from where you'll reach Media City
UK, Salford
Quays, with lots of places to eat.
The
perfect introduction to the great city of Manchester
Clifton
Country Park
Lying in the Irwell Valley south-east of
Kearsley, Clifton Country Park covers 120 acres of beautiful forest, meadow and
lake, and provides visitors of all abilities with lovely walks. The harshness
of the colliery landscape has been enveloped by nature. Well- surfaced tracks
encircle the lake and give frequent glimpses of the Wet Earth Colliery's past,
including James Brindley's siphon, while revealed in the woodland east of the
visitor centre are Gal mine's pit head, the old engine shed and the wheelhouse.
Explore a
beautiful, green oasis on a former colliery site
Wigan Pier and The
Flashes
This walk around the environs of southern Wigan follows green corridors between the houses and
factories of the Wigan Pier quarter and Ince- in-Makerfield. With help from
Wigan Council and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, nature has returned to cloak
the former coalfields. A canal towpath takes you from the pier, through the
middle of the Flashes, and old miners' paths and railway trackbeds are used on
the return for a pleasant and unexpectedly rural-feeling walk.
A canal
corridor and green spaces walk with a rural feel from Wigan
Jumbles
Country Park
and Turton Tower
This is a fine walk in the once industrial
Bradshaw valley, set among the splendid rural Pennine scenery of Jumbles Country Park.
Good paths lead round the reservoir, flanked by woodland, and there's a climb
to see the 700-year-old Turton
Tower, where you can view
two mysterious skulls. The route passes through quiet, medieval Chapeltown
before returning through Ousel Nest Meadows, a local nature reserve, to Jumbles
and well-deserved tea and cake from the country park café.
Splendid
Pennine views, lake, woods, meadows and 700-year-old tower
Irwell
Vale to Ramsbottom
This linear walk starts from pretty Irwell
Vale, its cottage gardens adorned with roses and colourful borders, and heads
for Ramsbottom along the trackbed of the dismantled Accrington
branch of the East Lancashire Railway, which passes though avenues of birch,
sycamore and oak. In Ramsbottom, you can catch an East Lancashire Railway steam
or vintage diesel train back through the valley to the start, where the Irwell
Vale Chapel café serves lovely homemade cakes.
Linear old
railway walk in the Irwell valley, returning by steam train
Hollingworth
Lake
Hollingworth Lake offers the perfect stroll. The paths, tracks
and country lanes are flat and well surfaced. There are views of the lake and
surrounding Pennine hills, and there's always wildlife to spot. Beginning on a
narrow Victorian promenade, the walk continues with views to the rocky hill
known as Blackstone Edge, which Daniel Defoe described as 'the Andes of the North'. The site of the once-famous Pavilion
dance hall is passed before returning to the cafés and amusements of Smithy Bridge.
Attractive
lakeside circuit, Pennine views and waterside cafés
Dove
Stone Reservoir
This walk is set in Greater Manchester's
piece of the Peak District, where Saddleworth Moor towers above the Tame
valley. It's a spectacular scene, lending itself to an easy walk around the
lowest of four reservoirs - Dove Stone - filling two side valleys of the Tame.
Shapely summits and crags surround the reservoir's shore path, while a
delightful picnic spot awaits at the halfway point - eat a packed lunch while
watching sailing dinghies racing across the water.
Scenic
reservoir circuit in Manchester's corner of the Peak District
Etherow
Country Park
Lying between the moorland of the Dark Peak
and the conurbation of Manchester, Etherow Country Park
couldn't be more different to either. Here, the River Etherow flows in a
steep-sided, verdant valley cloaked with lovely woodland. The man-made lakes
have blended splendidly with their surroundings. This route can be divided into
two: a circuit of the main mill pond provides a flat, easy-paced walk suitable
for all users; the extension (for walkers without wheels) takes you deeper into
the forest.
Lush,
wooded valley; old mill village history and a patron of industry
Sale
Water Park
The valley of the River Mersey meanders
lazily through a pleasant green corridor between the suburbs of Greater
Manchester. The river is particularly pleasant around the Sale
and Chorlton Water Parks,
where a significant effort has been made to create diverse wildlife havens. The
walk begins at the historic Jackson's Boat (pub)
and follows the banks of the Mersey before delving between Sale Water Park's lake and the pools and wetlands
of the Broad Ees Dole Nature Reserve.
Mersey stroll;
Broad Ees Dole Nature Reserve; lake-based activities
Dunham
Massey
This easy-paced walk takes in beautiful
countryside between Cheshire
and Greater Manchester. Setting out along a lovely disused railway path, the
walk crosses the Dunham Massey Estate. After a while, you'll recognise the
estate's regal maroon colour on the windows, doors and signs. Fine village pubs
line the route to the impressive mansion, which dates back to medieval times.
In the estate parkland you may well be able to see fallow deer. The walk
finishes on the Bridgewater
Canal (nationaltrust.
org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/ dunham-massey).
Lovely old
railway path; Dunham Massey parkland; rural canal towpath
