Tegg's Nose Country Park
A gritstone hill above Macclesfield with old quarry machinery to clamber round, a summit view across the whole Cheshire Plain and a good coffee shop at the bottom. Free apart from the pay and display car park.
West Park
- Cost
- Free entry
- Ages
- 0 to 11
- Where
- Macclesfield, Cheshire
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
Opened in 1854 and funded partly by penny subscriptions from the town's own workers, West Park is one of the earliest municipal parks in the country. For a family that history translates to the useful stuff: a playground with a separate toddler area, a skatepark for older ones, wide lawns, ornamental gardens, a picnic area and a cafe open nine till five every day of the week.
Entry is free. The gates open at 8am and close at 6.30pm from October to March, later through spring and summer (8.30pm in June to August). The one catch is the toilets, which open 8am to 3pm Monday to Thursday, close at 2.30pm on Fridays and do not open at all at weekends or on bank holidays, so time the last orange squash accordingly.
The park also holds three pre-Norman stone cross shafts and the West Park Museum, given to the town in 1898 with Egyptian artefacts and Charles Tunnicliffe's bird paintings inside. The museum is currently closed to the public, which is a shame. Check before promising anyone mummies.
What it costs: Entry is free. The cafe runs 9am to 5pm daily.
Know before you go
- The council toilets open Monday to Thursday 8am to 3pm and Friday 8am to 2.30pm, and are shut at weekends and on bank holidays. The cafe is your fallback.
- Parking is at the Prestbury Road drive end; the playground and toddler area sit close enough together to watch both at once.
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