Alexandra Park
Oldham's Victorian showpiece, 72 acres built by out-of-work cotton spinners. Lake, duck pond, cafe on the water, seven free tennis courts and a playground with a proper accessible section.
Tandle Hill Country Park
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Tandle Hill is about 110 acres of beech woodland and open grassland northeast of Oldham, above Royton, and it is the closest thing the area has to a proper hill walk you can do in trainers. The trees were planted in the 1920s round a war memorial that still stands at the top, and on a clear day you can pick out Manchester and, if the light is behaving, the Welsh hills.
The family stuff is at the bottom: a play area with sand play and a basket swing, picnic space and the Countryside Centre with a cafe that opens weekends and school holidays. Orienteering is set up here too, which is the single best way to make a woodland walk feel like an activity to a seven year old who has announced they are bored.
Two things to plan around. The car park is small and free, which is a combination that means it fills by mid-morning at weekends. And Oldham currently list the toilets as closed until further notice, with no reopening date, so treat the site as a facilities-free hillside with a good playground attached.
Know before you go
- Oldham's page says the toilets are closed until further notice. Deal with that before you set off, because it is a proper hill and there is nowhere else.
- The car park is small and fills fast on a decent weekend. Get there early or accept a walk up the road.
- Two waymarked routes: green is 900 metres, blue is 1,300 metres. Both are short enough that a four year old will finish them, which is the whole point.
- The cafe only opens at weekends and in school holidays, and only if the weather allows. Take a flask as well and be pleasantly surprised.
Seasonal: Cafe opens weekends and school holidays. Check before travelling.
Looking for more parks & outdoors near Oldham?
Also in Oldham
Chadderton Hall Park
The Chadderton park with the cafe, and therefore the toilets. Play area with a sand pit and accessible swings, free tennis, a river walk and ornamental gardens, all on a flat site with parking.
Dunwood Park
Small, tidy and 300 metres from a tram stop, which makes Dunwood the one you can do without a car. Playground, three tennis courts, a bowling green and free parking if you do drive.