Byrom Hall Wood

Sketch map: Byrom Hall Wood and surrounds

Byrom Wood is another of the small patches of woodland scattered round Greater Manchester, bridging a bit of space between Golborne and Pennington Flash. You can treat it as a walk on its own or as an add-on to another local walk.

Looking back at Byrom Hall 

For a first visit it's probably easiest to get the 588 from Leigh and get off at Byrom Lodge. If you miss it on the way down you can get it on the way back — the bus shuttles between Leigh and Lowton. You want to take the path by Byrom Hall, the farmhouse by the roadside. (If you do miss it it's not a long walk up Slag Lane from the next stop at the riding centre). The lane across the road is Byron Lane which takes you to the Southern shore of Pennington Flash.  As you walk past Byrom Hall you go past farm pastures then fairly quickly into the woods.

Walking in from Golborne 

Alternatively you can get the 610 from Wigan or Leigh and get off at Golborne High School or Rothwell Gardens. It's a less obvious route into the woods from this direction, you need to walk down the path between Rothwell Gardens and Rothwell Road, join Farm Croft Drive and then carry on walking straight on as the road curves away to your left. Ignore the gates, keep walking ahead. You'll pass some rough pasture which is the haunt of goldfinches, swallows and butterflies then join a bit of light woodland. 

Looking over towards Abram

If you carry on through you'll get out into some wet pasture and a vista of open farm fields and meadows over to Abram. If you follow the quacks in front of you you'll find a willow-lined pond round the corner of the field. You can't go any further so you'll have to retrace your steps. A path follows the field boundary, enters woodland and eventually joins the metalled path within the wood. It can be very muddy. 

The path can get muddy

Alternatively, before you get to open country you can follow the path that forks to the right, passes a pond and joins the metalled path.

Byrom Wood 

There's a good metalled circular path around the wood which makes for a pleasant walk. There's a mixture of deciduous woodland with all the Red Rose Forest regulars and open glades with small ponds and little brooks.

The birdwatching is what you would expect from light woodland in Northwest England. In Winter expect finch flocks and mixed tit flocks, warblers in Summer, chiffchaffs and blackcaps abundant in the trees, whitethroats in the glades. I haven't bumped into willow tits here but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a pair of two here. If you're coming in from Golborne make sure to check out whichever pond you're passing just in case there's more than just mallards or teal about, especially in late Summer when black-necked grebes are dispersing and can stop for a rest at any stray patch of water. And don't forget to look up every so often for buzzards and kestrels.