Tucked away in the Douglas Valley, Parbold is one of West Lancashire’s finest secrets. It combines everything there is to love about the North West countryside. We went there on two consecutive ...
Rimrose Valley Country Park offers a surprising escape into nature right on the edge of Great Crosby and Litherland. This large green space stretches for miles between urban neighbourhoods and provide...
Lancashire has many beautiful green spaces for a relaxing day out. Beacon Country Park is one of the very best spots in the region for fresh air. It sits on the high ground of Up Holland, near Wigan a...
[Updated 11/05/2026]. Worden Park in Leyland is one of those places that quietly delivers everything you want from a day out in the North West. It combines open countryside, formal gardens, heritage b...
[Updated 10/05/2026]. On the site of the former Sutton Manor Colliery, ‘The Dream’ near St Helens is one of the most significant pieces of public art in the North West. It is well worth a ...
[Updated 10/05/2026] The last time we visited ‘Another Place’ by Antony Gormley, it was overcast, grey, and miserable. My girlfriend had just got off a flight from Asia. We were standing l...
There are villages in the Lake District that are pretty, and then there is Grasmere. This small settlement in the central fells occupies a valley so perfectly proportioned that William Wordsworth, cal...
Kendal is one of those towns that visitors tend to drive straight through. (Sorry, Kendal, but there it is!). They are heading for Windermere or Ambleside and barely glance at the exit. That is a mist...
Prescot sits about nine miles east of Liverpool, close enough to feel connected to the city but distinct enough to have its own identity entirely. It is an old market town, one of the oldest in Mersey...
Ambleside sits at the northern tip of Windermere, England’s longest lake. It is cradled by fells on every side and threaded through by the River Rothay. It is the Lake District in miniature: a c...
The North West of England is not the first place that springs to mind for wine, spirits, or craft beer. The rain, the reputation, the endless jokes about the weather do nothing to suggest vineyard cou...
The rejuvenated waterfront often steals the spotlight, but the true soul of Salford lies within its historic streets, sprawling parklands, and remarkably preserved manor houses. To see Salford only th...
There are National Trust properties that feel like a grand occasion. Rufford Old Hall is not one of those. It is better than that. Tucked away in the flat, quietly beautiful West Lancashire plain, jus...
There is something genuinely magical about the moment a goat takes a handful of feed from a small child’s palm, or when a lamb trots over on wobbly legs and decides you look trustworthy enough t...
Most people who pass through Penrith are on their way somewhere else. They pull off the M6 at Junction 40, and pick up a coffee. They then point themselves at Windermere or Keswick before the engine h...