We are super fortunate to live close to the beautiful Etherow Country Park. It really is a beautiful place to visit, and somewhere that the children always find a lovely place to investigate and explore.
On Good Friday the children and I headed out early for a walk – it was forecast to be a warm day so I was keen for us to get out early before it got too warm.
We went armed with food for the ducks and I planned to seek out the Etherow Fairy Den. It’s somewhere I’ve heard about but never actually tried to seek out. We parked up and headed around the lake (we went right – past the sailing area). There was a lot of Canadian Geese at the car park area but as we headed around the lake they thinned out a bit and we spotted the mallards and the gorgeous mandarin ducks. I had hoped we might see the swans, but we didn’t spot them so they must be nesting somewhere away from the public this year.
We did manage to spot the coots and were even lucky enough to see their nest, complete with eggs. I think Em thought they might hatch there and then! I had to persuade her to continue on but we will head back soon to see if they have hatched yet or not.
We continued on and once you reach the top of the lakes you get to the grassy area and the weir. The weir is always really lovely to watch and listen to. and it’s so noisy, the children love it! We then headed up into Ernocroft woods to seek out the Fairy Den.
To find the Fairy Den you need to go into the woods, there is a short steep section but it perfectly achievable with a pushchair if you have one. Once you’re into the woods you should come to a sign – follow the direction of the tramway track which will take you to the right and down into the woods. Follow this path around and you’ll soon come to the fabulous Etherow Fairy Den. It’s 1.02 miles from the car park to the fairy den following the route that we took.
The Etherow Fairy Den is pretty impressive and the children spent ages there, having a good look around at all the trinkets and bits and pieces left there. The woods are beautiful and it’s a super peaceful space to be in. After a while, I managed to persuade them to continue on and we continued up the path. If you follow the path around you come to another den and then rejoin the pathway which takes you back out of Ernocroft woods and past the weir, back into the main part of Etherow. Whilst we were in the woods we spotted a woodpecker (and many other birds too). It’s a really beautiful space and it’s nice to see the children clambering and exploring the area.
We headed back into the main part of Etherow and continued on around the lake back to the car park. It was starting to get busy by the time we got back to the car so I was glad we had made an early visit.
