Greater Manchester Short Walks Made Easy

Discover ten short and leisurely walks across Greater Manchester with ‘Short Walks Made Easy’. Perfect for beginners and seasoned walkers alike, these routes are ideal for families and young adventurers, offering enjoyable and manageable routes within easy reach of the city together.

The great city of Manchester, its metropolitan surroundings and urban fringes provide the setting for the ten splendid short walks, which embrace the city centre, the green spaces and blue corridors of Greater Manchester, and the scenic countryside within easy reach of the city.

Greater Manchester Short Walks Made Easy includes:

• 10 Accessible Walks: Suitable for the whole family.
• Conveniently Short Routes: Walks range from 1 to 4 miles, designed to be completed within a couple of hours and suitable for all year round. Perfect for families, casual walkers, or anyone short on time.
• Easy Planning: Each walk features an information panel with details on distance, estimated time, parking, public toilets, nearby cafes and pubs, public transport options, terrain and recommended footwear.
• Clear and Reliable Mapping: Routes include simplified large-scale mapping for ultra-clear route finding and confidence along the way.
• Numbered Points: Link maps to route descriptions, walk profiles, and photographs for each point, ensuring you know exactly where you're going.
• Enriched Walks: Captivating stories behind the walks and Nature Notes on local wildlife and plant species enhance your experience by highlighting what to look out for and learn about along the way.

About the walks:

Starting amid the grand architecture in the historic heart of Manchester, the opening walk is a station-to-station route to the modern steel and glass buildings of Media City in rejuvenated Salford Quays. Excellent Transport for Greater Manchester connections whisk walkers by tram, train, and bus to locations from Wigan to Stockport and Ramsbottom to Altrincham.

In Wigan, old miners’ paths and railway trackbeds lead you through the waterscapes of The Flashes on a walk with an unexpectedly rural feel. Pennine views are the highlight of the Turton Tower ramble from Jumbles Country Park. Explore the Irwell Valley on foot, then return from Ramsbottom via steam train, or enjoy the lakeside cafés at Hollingworth in a lovely shore circuit.

Routes at Dove Stone Reservoir and Etherow Country Park let you experience Manchester’s corner of the Peak District. Four rural pubs and a National Trust café dot the route through the landscaped deer park of Dunham Massey, and you can follow winding nature reserve trails around the oasis of Sale Water Park.