Hollingworth Lake
A flat, buggy-friendly lap of a reservoir with a good playground, rowing boats in season and ice cream at both ends. Simple, cheap and reliably works.
Healey Dell Nature Reserve
Rochdale, Greater Manchester
The Spodden has cut a real gorge here, and after rain the waterfalls are worth the trip on their own. Above it all runs the old Rochdale to Bacup railway line, now a level trail that crosses a viaduct 100 feet up, so you get the view down as well as the roar from below. The falls once powered corn, wool and cotton mills, and the ruins are still down there among the trees.
Park free at Broadley Wood Lodge off Station Road or at the Heritage Centre, then be honest about which walkers you have. The railway line is fine for confident little legs; the paths down to the falls are steep, stepped and slippy, with drops that will have you holding hands whether they like it or not. The Victorian tea rooms at the Heritage Centre do a proper cream tea in vintage china.
Keep an eye out for fairy doors on the way round - the dell leans into its folklore, and the Heritage Centre has a Fairy Grotto that buys you another twenty minutes with younger ones. Daft, and it works.
Know before you go
- Do the viaduct via the old railway line if anyone in the party is wobbly - it is the flat route, and the view down the gorge is the payoff.
- It is cooler, darker and muddier down in the dell than up top. Wellies most of the year, and go after rain if you want the falls at full volume.
Worth knowing: Steep, stepped paths and unfenced drops near the falls - best for kids who are steady on their feet.
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