Keep moving this May with the return of popular GM walking festival

Events are kicking off across Bolton as the hugely popular Greater Manchester (GM) Walking Festival returns for the first time since the start of the pandemic. 

The Let’s Walk GM Walking Festival 2022 is an opportunity for people to walk more in May by joining in with a programme of free, organised group walks. Starting on 1st May, the Festival coincides with this year’s National Walking Month. 

With nearly 200 different group walks to choose from, you can search on the GM Walking Festival website for walks based on distance or grading, proximity to public transport, accessibility by wheelchair, buggy-friendly walks, and routes close to cafes and pubs. 

 As part of this year's event, walks in Bolton include:

• City of Trees: Dementia Friendly Woodland Walk, 12th May, 11am. This is a leisure walk within the surrounding woodland at Smithills Hall. The theme of this walk is pond life. Participants will look out for signs of life in woodland ponds with pond-dipping activities. This walk is for people living with dementia and their families or carers
• Gaskell Primary School Walk, 21st May, 9:30am. A pupil and parent walk. around the woods, hills and ornamental gardens at Rivington Country Park
• The Woodland Trust are organising a Smithills Trespass Walk, 21st May, 09:30am. Follow in the footsteps of original Winter Hill Mass Trespass which took place in 1896, when 10,000 people marched to reclaim an ancient right of way over Winter Hill and find out more about it
• Two Lads and Wilderswood, 8 May, 2pm. Organised by Bolton Ramblers, this is a 2 hour walk with an uphill section across the moors to the stone cairns (Two Lads) returning via Wilderswood

The Festival walks are provided by community groups, walking groups and a range of organisations working across Greater Manchester. With so many different types of walks on offer, there is something for everyone.

Louise Robbins, Strategic Lead GM Walking, said: “This May we want to encourage more people to keep moving by exploring their local area, discovering new places to walk, socialising and having fun through walking. 

“Our aim is to support people to walk regularly in their neighbourhoods and through the inspiring Festival walks programme, to encourage more walking amongst those who are new walking. To help with motivation, there is a calendar people can use to keep track of their walks or miles. We also have hints and tips for walking all year round available on the GM Walking website. 

 “We’re lucky to live in such a beautiful region for enjoying the great outdoors. There are nature reserves, ancient woodland, and fantastic open spaces all within Greater Manchester. Much of this greenspace is tucked behind residential areas and we hope this May more people will discover it for themselves, by foot.”

This is the sixth annual GM Walking Festival, and the first since 2019. In 2019, there were an estimated 4800 attendances across over 350 walks as part of the Festival. So why not join in this year and be part of something amazing. 

The full programme of guided events is available to view at the GM Walking Festival website www.gmwalking.co.uk/festival-routes 

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Editors notes

GreaterSport is a Greater Manchester charity with a clear purpose to Change Lives Together through movement, physical activity and sport. We lead, support and connect people and partners across the system to develop and deliver on the whole system vision and approach to GM Moving in Action.

As an Active Partnership we are part of the national network, working with Sport England to lead and support local implementation of Uniting the Movement.

GM Moving Greater Manchester Moving is GM’s movement for movement working together to positively change the lives of people across Greater Manchester (GM) through physical activity and sport. As people, communities and organisations, from every sector and place across the city region, pulling in the same direction, united by a shared passion and commitment for what we do, why we do it and how we do it.

The shared mission is to enable active lives for all.

The shared commitments, priorities and approach are set out in ‘GM Moving in Action’ our strategy for the next decade, 2021-31.