Carrington Moss

Sketch map of Carrington Moss

Carrington Moss is an unremarkable piece of farmland, which makes it remarkable within Trafford where every piece of green space bigger than a beach towel is marked as prime development space for executive housing. Now you'll never guess what… Which is why I should write it up while it's still there.

Carrington Moss

The northern boundary of the moss is an industrial estate, the petrochemical works being the most obvious landmark.

From Carrington:

The bus stop is near the corner of Manchester Road and Isherwood Road. The buses go through Flixton, turn a sharp left after the garden centre then go down the dead straight Flixton Road then do an over-complicated right turn at the crossroads onto Manchester Road.

• The 247 bus from the Trafford Centre to Altrincham
• The 255 from Manchester via Urmston
• You can catch either of these from Flixton train station (turn left as you leave the station and it's less than a minutes' walk to the bus stop). If you choose to walk down to Carrington, turn right and follow the road down; cross the road before you get to the garden centre (you don't want to be trying to cross at the top of Flixton Road: the motorists are too busy remembering to slow down to look for pedestrians). 

Walk down Isherwood Road to get to Carrington Moss.

From Altrincham

• The 247 bus from Altrincham to the Trafford Centre meanders its way through Broadheath. You want the first stop when it turns onto Sinderland Road. (There's allegedly a bus stop further along Sinderland Road just after Altrincham Sewage Works but I've never found it or seen it from the bus). Cross the road, walk down Heathermount and you'll get to a gap that lets you get onto the dead straight though sometimes overgrown path that's the remains of the old railway line from Irlam to Timperley. Turn left and follow it past the sewage works and on towards Birch Road and the southern end of the moss.

I'm always coming here from north of the Mersey so that's how I'll describe the site.

Walking down Isherwood Road there's farmland on the left and houses then an industrial estate on the right. Towards the end of the road the farmland's replaced by a big electricity station and the industrial estate's hidden by trees. Around this point Isherwood Road becomes Birch Road but you'd never know it. Keep an eye on the skies: you've a good chance of seeing buzzard, kestrel or sparrowhawk and a raven may pass once in a while.

When you get to the security barrier (yes really, it's to stop unauthorised people driving to a well-known football team's training ground) you have a choice. 

• Carry on down Birch Road then turn right at the first opportunity. In Winter this stretch hosts good-sized finch flocks with a good chance of a few bramblings in there.

• Turn left onto the path that follows the fenced-off area. Behind the fence is the Shell Pool nature reserve which is accessible by permit only. The bits of wet woodland surrounding the pool is always worth a look: finches in Winter, warblers in Summer. I keep hoping to find willow tits here but haven't for twenty-odd years. You can get tantalising glimpses of the pool through the trees. Mallard, Canada goose, coot and black-headed gulls are the usual regulars with tufted duck, gadwall and dabchicks as frequent supporting cast. From this perspective you'll usually hear more than you'll see.

Juvenile treecreeper, Carrington Moss

Further on, by the remains of the old Shell plant, the path turns round into a small copse which has its fair share of mixed tit flocks in Winter and warblers in Summer. As you go down the path the trees thin out until they become tree-deep borders to the fields.

The leafy lane going due south from the petrochemical works.

At the first crossing point you should turn left and go back towards Birch Road and on towards the riding school. (I couldn't possibly tell you to continue down past the "No entry" signs and continue on down to the end to meet the path that's the remains of the railway line.) As you turn left the path margins change: on the North side there's a high hawthorn hedge with a few big gaps, to the south there's an open field. You'll usually find yellowhammers and chaffinches in the hedge, in Winter the occasional brambling. In Summer you might strike lucky with lesser whitethroat in the field margins. In late Summer you've a good chance of seeing yellow wagtails feeding in the fields.

Yellowhammer, Carrington Moss

Carrington Moss

Yellow wagtail, Carrington Moss