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| Sketch map: Worsley Woods |
Worsley Woods is a band of woodland between Roe Green and Worsley that follows the sweep of Kempnough Brook and Worsley Brook meeting at the pool by Old Warke Dam. It's a good hour or so's walk round, longer if you want a good rummage round. The woodland has the usual regulars, grey wagtails breed on Worsley Brook, Old Warke Dam usually has the waterfowl you'd expect round here. Most of the walking is fairly level, the Roe Green Loop to the East is an old railway line, and the long stairways down to Worsley Brook aren't compulsory unless you're looking for wagtails.
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| Worsley Woods |
The easiest way of getting there is to get the 20 bus that goes between the Trafford Centre and Bolton and get off at Worsley Delph to join the path from the South, at Beesley Green to join the path from the North, or Mabel Avenue to join the Roe Green Loop and wander in from the East. The 35 between Manchester and Leigh or Bryn and the 66 between Eccles and Prestwich stop at Worsley Court House just round the corner from Worsley Delph.
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| Kempnough Brook |
The path down from the bus stop in Roe Green is the most immediately obvious one to find. Not long after you go through the gates the path splits, one looping round the edge of the woods to the Roe Green Loop, one following Kempnough Brook and one crossing the brook and looping round to meet the second path at the motorway to follow the brook to Old Warke Dam. There's a maze of other paths you can explore for a good walk round.
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| Worsley Brook |
At Worsley Delph you've got a choice. Take the road by the Delph Basin and you'll get to the paths around Worsley Brook. These tend to be a bit wild and can be muddy though the wettest stretches have long stretches of boardwalks.
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| Walking up from Worsley Brook |
There's the option of taking the steps down to the boardwalk by the brook which is well worth doing if your knees can take it. There's a suite of steps at the other end for the steep rise to Old Warke Dam; there are a few meandering and often muddy paths that will eventually get you to the path at the top that gets round to the dam. It's actually quite hard to appreciate that the dam's there when you look from this direction, it just sort of comes as a logical deduction as you walk over to the pool.
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| Old Warke Dam |
If, when you get off the bus, you walk past The Delph pub and walk up Mill Brow there's a more sedate walk over to Old Warke Dam.
Worsley Woods can be part of a very pleasant longer walk. You can get here by walking up from Monton along Duke's Drive and joining the Roe Green Loop from that end. The Northern end of the loop is on Walkden Road just south of Walkden Station. A side branch running Northwest from Roe Green becomes the Woodland Trail to Ellenbrook which then runs alongside the guided busway to Leigh.
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| Old Warke Dam |
