Three relaxing North West walks to help you unwind

We all know how a walk can help to clear our minds and reduce stress and escape the demands of daily life.

In the North West we are blessed with expanses of countryside, but sometimes corridors of tranquility can be found in surprising places.

We spoke to people across the region who find tranquility in places that are part of the region's urban and industrial history.

A major legacy of the north's west industrial heritage is the region's canals.

They were the arteries through which trade pumped during the Industrial Revolution and beyond.

Many were allowed to deteriorate when their heyday had passed, but leisure use has injected new life into them.

After major regeneration, the Rochdale Canal was reopened in 2002.

Lisa Keogh, who works with special needs children, said she regularly walks the stretch through Chadderton in Oldham.

"It's really great for your well-being physically and it really can calm you down.

"Get off the path, off the road, onto the canal.

"You can't hear the traffic, you can hear the birds, you can see the ducks, so it's very peaceful."

Lisa says her work is demanding and involves long days and lots of travel and said walks along the canal help her to switch off.

"You've got to make a conscious effort into building time for yourself, it's so important self-care," she said.

"I do it because I'm in my own little bubble and I can just zone out.

"It just focuses me on what's going on around me rather than the worries of the day or what's coming tomorrow."

Rochdale Canal runs from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge and offers with walking routes along the tow path.

Once used as salt marshes for cattle grazing, and then as a landfill site, in 1982 Pickering's Pasture in Widnes was transformed into a nature reserve.

It is now home to wild flower meadows, a range of wildlife and a fabulous view across the upper River Mersey estuary.

It has become a destination for many people looking for calm, including Ross, who first started going there when he was trying to quit drinking.

"In 2017, I decided I need to stop drinking and I'd tried lots of different ways to do it and nothing had worked," he said.

"A friend of mine told me to go for a run.

"I don't even know how I found here. I just sort of stumbled upon it and I ran, and it was terrible and I was awful. But I came back again and again, and again, and again, and it worked."

Nine years on Ross still comes to Pickering's Pasture with his dog Coco, a three-year-old whippet.

"Me and Coco come down for our walks early evening sometimes and we've seen barn owls, we've seen woodpeckers, kingfishers, so it's a lovely place," he said.

"I knew that my drinking was damaging me, but it also damages the people around you.

"For me, was the hardest thing to accept. My wife, who's been amazing, had stood by me and I couldn't put her through it anymore, and had to change.

"When I come down here it makes me feel good."

Pickering's Pasture is located off Mersey View Road, Halebank, Widnes, Cheshire and has surfaced paths along the waterfront.

Near Preston in Lancashire and once a sand and gravel quarry, Brockholes Nature Reserve is now home to a range of birds, insects, mammals and plants.

The former quarry site was bought by the Wildlife Trust in 2007 and opened to the public in 2011.

The landscape was reshaped by heavy machinery and large excavation pits have helped create habitats for wildlife, said Brockholes senior reserves officer Lorna Bennett.

The reserve is a mix of lakes, wetlands, reed beds, meadows and woodland, and also features a unique floating visitor village built on a pontoon which rises and falls with water levels.

"When you are feeling a little bit down wildlife encounters really pick you up," she said.

She also encouraged visitors to the site to take time to pause and listen for different sounds of the wildlife at the site.

"You can pick up on all sorts and your world opens up," she said.

Brockholes Nature Reserve is located, near to junction 31 of the M6, and is open all year round for walks, birdwatching, and community events.

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