Day Trips from Manchester

In Brief. The Thornbridge Estate , near Bakewell, hosts a vibrant garden and a distinctive hall that is a historic building, family home and events venue in one. Many will visit for the garden, for which the well established view from the house to the lake boasts a thousand shades of green, and there are several other areas with quite different character. The house can only be visited by tour groups, which is understandable given that it is someone's home (we met one of the owners), and blends period and modern features as a result of extensive renovations. The hall from the Koi Lake What's Here? Thornbridge is a privately owned country house, of recent wider significance as the original site of the Thornbridge Brewery , best known for its Jaipur IPA, which can be sampled at the cafe.  The gardens provide considerable variety, including the trees and bushes that lead from the lake up to the house, lawns with views over rolling hills, a herbaceous border, a scented terrace that ...

In Brief. Brockholes is a nature reserve, adjacent to the River Ribble and the M6 motorway near Preston. The reserve occupies a site that has previously been quarried, and that has been developed to provide a variety of habitats including reed beds, lakes, woodland areas and a marsh. The centrepiece is a floating visitor centre that hosts a cafe, a welcome building with some information on wildlife and habitats, and some meeting spaces.  Seemingly you can also get married here!  Visitor Village and Meadow Lake What's Here? Having recently visited more than one inland Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve (the one at Leighton Moss features in a blog ), some features are beginning to recur that are shared with Brockholes.  These include calm areas of water, paths that navigate trough a variety of habitats, views over the waterways, and hides that the very patient can use to get closer to the local wildlife (not being so patient, I moved on from one promp...