Jumbles Country Park
A flat circular walk round a United Utilities reservoir in the Bradshaw valley north of Bolton, with a small cafe by the car park and enough water birds to hold a four year old. Genuinely pushchair friendly.
Parks & outdoors Bolton
Parks & outdoors in Bolton
Playgrounds, country parks, woodland trails and nature reserves. Most of these cost nothing.
4 in Bolton4 free4 suit under-5s
Bolton has four free parks on this page, and only one of them wants money once you are through the gate. That is Moss Bank, where The Hive nature-play garden charges £2.50 a head and earns it if your children are under seven.
Moses Gate at Farnworth has the biggest play area in the borough sitting inside 750 acres, with three lakes and a bird hide behind it, and Jumbles is the quiet one, a flat loop round a reservoir up the Bradshaw valley with a free car park. Queen's Park keeps the mini zip line, the sand pit with its toy digger and, mercifully, toilets in sight of the cafe.
Parks & outdoors in Bolton
Moses Gate Country Park
Bolton's biggest play area sits inside a 750 acre country park at Farnworth, with three lakes, a bird hide and miles of waterside path behind it. Even the safety surfacing earns its keep, printed with the life cycle of a frog.
Moss Bank Park
Bolton's big free family park: two decent playgrounds, a miniature railway, a seasonal funfair and The Hive, a Wildlife Trust nature-play garden that charges £2.50 a head and is worth it for under-sevens.
Queen's Park
Bolton's restored Victorian park: a proper playground with a mini zip line and a sand pit with a toy digger, a cafe with public toilets in sight of it, and the River Croal running through. Free, including the Spa Road car park.
Parks & outdoors elsewhere in the North West
Walton Hall & Gardens
The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.
Risley Moss
A peat bog nature reserve with woodland trails, a visitor centre and an observation tower the kids can climb. Free, close and short enough for little legs.
Sherdley Park
St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.
Dream, Sutton Manor
A 20-metre white head rising out of a reclaimed colliery, with woodland trails around it. Genuinely strange and memorable for kids, and a short walk rather than a hike.
Sankey Valley Park
A green corridor of canal towpath and parkland running from St Helens down towards Warrington. Flat, traffic-free and ideal if the bikes or scooters are coming.
Speke Hall
A Tudor hall with woodland walks, a maze and a natural play area in the grounds. Free if you have National Trust membership, and the indoor house is a good rain fallback.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.