Heaton Park

Heaton Park is the largest municipal park in Europe boasting over 640 acres of heritage landscape, grazing land and landscaped gardens.

The park is home to the Neo-Classical Grade 1 listed Heaton Hall, several grade 2 listed buildings and landmarks, an animal centre and leisure activities for all tastes, including cafes, garden centre, championship golf course, Zip World, boating lake, heritage tramway and museum, adventure playgrounds, events and festivals combine to make Heaton Park one of the most popular and affordable family days out in the North West.

Construction started on Heaton Hall in 1772 and finished mid 1790’s with the Orangery added in 1823. The state rooms include the Library, the Music Room and Dining Room and upstairs is a very rare Pompeiian Cupola Room which was the work of Italian artist Biagio Rebecca. The hall and park were owned by the Egerton family until it was put up for sale and bought by Manchester City Council in 1902. During the First World War the hall was used as a military hospital.

The 12-acre boating lake was constructed between 1908 and 1912 by previously unemployed men using only shovels and hand-pulled trucks. The lake, which is overlooked by the Lakeside Café, has three islands and is home to large numbers of ornamental birds and wildfowl including herons, geese, ducks, swans and fantail doves. There are rowing boats available for hire and can be pre-booked online.