Parks & outdoors in Wigan

Haigh Woodland Park is the one with everything: woodland trails, big playgrounds, a hall lawn made for picnics and a miniature railway, free to get into and charging for the extras. It will take a whole day if you let it.

Mesnes Park is Wigan's grand Victorian one, reopened after a £6.1m restoration, with a playground, a bandstand and a cafe in the middle of town. Three Sisters is the strange one and the good one: three colliery spoil heaps turned into a nature reserve, with a lake and free parking. Nothing about it should work and all of it does.

Parks & outdoors in Wigan

Haigh Woodland Park

Wigan~25 min

★★★★★4.6(5,672)

Woodland trails, big playgrounds and a hall lawn made for picnics, with a miniature railway, high ropes and crazy golf as the paid extras. The free bits alone fill an afternoon.

Free entry, pay for extrasAges 4-11

Mesnes Park

Wigan~25 min

Wigan's grand Victorian park after a £6.1m restoration: playground, bandstand, waterfall, formal gardens and an ornate iron pavilion with a Frederick's ice cream cafe inside. Free and right on the edge of the town centre.

Free entryAges 1-11

Three Sisters Recreation Area

Wigan~20 min

★★★★★4.5(541)

Three colliery spoil heaps turned into a proper nature reserve: a lake with swans and kingfishers, 3km of flat pram-friendly paths, a playground and a woodland trail with a xylophone in it. Free parking, free everything.

Free, including parkingAges 2-11

Parks & outdoors elsewhere in the North West

Walton Hall & Gardens

Warrington~10 min

★★★★★4.7(6,537)

The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.

Free entryAges 4-11

Risley Moss

Warrington~10 min

★★★★★4.6(745)

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.

FreeAges 4-11

Sherdley Park

St HelensIn town

St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.

FreeAges 4-11

Dream, Sutton Manor

St Helens~10 min

★★★★☆4.4(1,301)

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.

FreeAges 4-11

Sankey Valley Park

St HelensIn town

★★★★★4.5(611)

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.

FreeAges 4-11

Speke Hall

Liverpool~30 min

★★★★★4.7(4,896)

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.

National TrustIndoorsAges 4-11