Salford, Greater Manchester
Clifton Country Park covers 48 hectares of former colliery land on the River Irwell at Clifton, now a local nature reserve with a Green Flag and a lake at the centre of it. For families the useful bits are the play area, the climbing boulder and the flat lakeside circuit, all within a couple of minutes of the car park on Clifton House Road.
The cafe is open daily from 9.30am to 3.30pm and is dog friendly, and the toilets keep the same hours. Turn up at four on a summer evening and you have a lovely walk and nowhere to go.
The visitor centre opens on a stranger pattern: Monday 11.30am to 4.30pm, Thursday 10am to 2.30pm, Friday and Sunday 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday 11.30am to 4.30pm, and shut on Tuesday and Wednesday. Do not plan the visit around it. Pedestrian access to the park itself is 24 hours.
Beyond the play area there is an arboretum, an orienteering course, fishing, part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail and the surviving traces of Wet Earth Colliery, which dates from around 1740 and gives you something to explain on the walk back. Salford's ranger team runs events from the visitor centre through the year.
What it costs: Free. Salford City Council lists no admission or parking charge.
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