Quarry Banks Nature Reserve

A lovely little hidden gem! While this walk isn’t particularly long at 1.3 miles it certainly provided a lot of entertainment for the children. It quite literally felt like we had been transported into a different world, Alfie described it as being in a Japanese Garden and I think he was right!

We headed over to Quarry Banks Nature Reserve from Cumwhinton, parking on the roadside on Peter Gate, CA4 0AU: look out for the public footpath sign for Wetheral Shields – this is where you begin. From here you follow the public footpath through fields and down past the train track until you reach Quarry Banks. Having walked through the fields you will reach the train track, this should then be on your left hand side as you are walking towards the nature reserve.

You feel as though you are searching through over grown weeds and plants until you are suddenly greeted with the most spectacular quarry filled with water! It was so quiet and still that we spent quite a bit of time just watching the wildlife and listening for all the different insects. The children were AMAZED. It provided us great shelter from the sun and the children’s imagination really came to life. Watch out for that swamp monster if you head down there!

hiking household