RHS Garden Bridgewater
One of the biggest garden projects in Europe, and more fun for kids than a flower garden has any right to be: a huge walled kitchen garden, lake walks, and space to run that feels endless.
Buile Hill Park
- Cost
- Free entry
- Ages
- 2 to 11
- Where
- Salford, Greater Manchester
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
Buile Hill is the largest and most popular park in Salford, and it is on the national register of historic parks and gardens, which you notice in the mature trees and the listed mansion at its centre. For children the useful bits are a play area, a multi-use games area, outdoor gym kit for restless adults and plenty of grass for a picnic.
It is free and open 24 hours to pedestrians. Parking is the catch: a limited car park near the Eccles Old Road entrance. L.S. Lowry, a rent collector before he was a painter, used to walk here, which is the kind of fact that means nothing to a six-year-old and quite a lot to the adult pushing the swing.
On Saturday 31 October 2026 it hosts the first night of Salford's free Firework Weekend, from 4pm, with three displays in rising order of noise. The first, Little Sparks, is the quieter one for younger children. There is a funfair, marshmallow toasting and a fire walk, and no bonfire this year.
What it costs: Free entry. Tennis courts can be booked through the council.
Know before you go
- Parking is limited to a small car park near the Eccles Old Road entrance, so on a busy day walk or come by bus if you can.
- At Salford's free fireworks on Saturday 31 October the grass gets muddy and parts of the park are dark. Wellies and a torch.
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