Quarry Bank Mill
A working cotton mill where the looms still clatter and the Apprentice House tells the children's side of the industrial revolution straight. A new Play Hub inside the mill and river walks outside round it off.
Alderley Edge (National Trust)
- Cost
- Free to walk, parking £5 for 4 hours
- Ages
- 3 to 14
- Where
- Wilmslow & Styal, Cheshire
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
Alderley Edge is the big red sandstone escarpment a mile and a half east of Alderley Edge village, on the Macclesfield Road at Nether Alderley. From the top you look out over the Cheshire Plain to the Peak District, and the woods are mature pine and beech with paths that wind past old copper mine workings. The highest point was a Bronze Age burial mound and later a beacon site. For a child with a stick, that is plenty of history to be getting on with.
The National Trust's easy route is the Wizard's Wander, a 1 mile circular walk past the mining remains and the legend of the wizard and the sleeping knights. There is also a 2 mile woodland valley walk, and orienteering for children who like a map and a mission. The Invisible Worlds app tells the legend as you walk, if you download it beforehand.
Walking costs nothing. Parking costs £5 for up to four hours or £8 for the day unless you are a National Trust member, and toilets are only at this car park. The Wizard tea room next to it is independent rather than National Trust, with indoor and outdoor seats and a takeaway hatch. Most of the Edge is steep, stepped and uneven, so it is a welly and walking boots trip, and not one for a wheelchair beyond the car park area. Dogs are welcome on short leads around livestock. Guided walks run on alternate Sundays from April to October, listed on the National Trust's What's On page.
What it costs: Free to walk. Non-member parking is £5 for up to four hours or £8 all day, paid by machine or JustPark. National Trust members park free but need to register. Countryside open dawn to dusk, car park 8am to 8pm.
Know before you go
- Do the Wizard's Wander first with small ones. It is the 1 mile easy-access loop and takes in the mine remains and the legend without the steep bits.
- The rest of the Edge has steps, drops and steep sandstone. Hold hands near the escarpment and leave the buggy for the Wizard's Wander only.
- Download the Invisible Worlds app at home before you go, so the legend story works in the woods without relying on signal.
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