Ashwig two

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A good route between Ashton-in-Makerfield and Wigan; urban beginning and end, with good rural and canal walks inbetween. It is mostly flat, with hardly any obstacles, although wheelchairs and buggys may struggle with some paths and gaps. Good shops and transport links at both ends.

From the centre of Ashton, we make our way uphill along a main road of houses and parks. As we pass Bryn station, we turn down a road, where we access a footpath via a small rough car park. The path runs along the edge of a playing field, before narrowing into a path. At a new housing estate, a gravel path takes us to the road, where new pavements follow the original route of the footpath as still marked on the route and OS maps.

(At time of survey, a section was diverted as building works was still ongoing, but the route us still viable).

Past the last house, a couple of steps down onto a narrow footpath running between farm and fence. At the end, a rough track takes us into the countryside. At a junction with the barrier, we follow a footpath towards the ruins of Park House Farm, where we take a farmtrack around thd buildings.

This too narrows into a footpath past fields and hedges, until it becomes fully wooded. Passing a recreational stile, we continue until the end, when we turn left. It's not instantly noticeable at first, but we're now on the towpath of the Leigh branch of the Leeds And Liverpool Canal. It soon opens up with water on both sides, as we pass the flashes on the outskirts of Wigan. The towpath transforms from earth to paved.

As we get to our first lock, we exit the canal down slopes to the road, which we cross and continue past a church and old mills on the left. At the end, right then left passing an old dry dock, and over a footbridge at another lock, before following a tarmac footpath to and through a car park behind Trencherfield mill. A few more paved roads, and, once under the rail viaduct, we arrive at Wigan.

A good route with some nice rural secions.

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