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With the days getting longer - and warmer- it is the perfect time to enjoy an outdoor adventure with all the family. This year, why not take in a 15th cathedral, a historic Tower and a stately home - effectively all of which are on your doorstep. Exploring the great outdoors has never been easier - or cheaper - thanks to new guidebooks by the Ordnance Survey.
A special guidebook has been produced detailing a number of walks to explore this wonderful region of ours - and you may find that Greater Manchester has a lot more to offer than you think. (Image: Ordnance Survey) The new guide for Greater Manchester will help you discover ten wonderful and different walks , making it easier to explore the outdoors than ever before. The setting for the ten 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. The Walks 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 (Image: Carlin Dawson) 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 (Image: Teresa Tinker) 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 through 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 (Image: Martin Gaskell) 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 (Image: Newsquest) 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 VISIT: https://osmaps.
com/place/united-kingdom/england/greater-manchester https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.
uk/greater-manchester-short-walks-guidebook-os-short-walks-made-easy/ Part of their OS Short Walks Made Easy series, the Greater Manchester guide is perfect for all abilities and requires no prior walking experience. The routes have also been chosen with accessibility in mind, making them ideal for families with pushchairs and wheelchair users. The guide also makes planning easy by providing a range of information to ensure an enjoyable day out.
It includes details on transport, parking, toilets, and refreshment stops such as pubs and cafes. Each guide also features captivating stories behind the walks and Nature Notes on local wildlife and plant species, enhancing your experience by highlighting what to look out for and learn about along the way. These elements make the walks extra enjoyable for children, giving them exciting things to look out for during the Easter holidays.
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