Seven Acres, Bolton: Photography Walks

by Helen Earnshaw | 23 August 2014

Seven Acres

When you are looking for a breath of fresh air and looking to get out and about with your camera, you don't have to go into the countryside to capture great wildlife shots.

Seven Acres Country Park is situation in the town of Bolton and is a nature haven in the middle of the hustle and bustle of town life.

I'm afraid to say, I have been driving past this spot for years before discovering it for the first time this summer - there are all types of great places to discover that really are just on your doorstep.

Damselfly

Set in fifteen acres - I know that is slightly more that the name implies - Seven Acres is a wonderful place to capture some of this country's best wildlife, or just a great place to take a stroll on a Sunday afternoon.

Nature photography really is the thing that interests me when I get out and about with my camera, and I was uncertain what I would find here.

But it really was a terrific place to get some great shots as it is made up a range of habitat, including open water, woodland, grassland, and heathland.

Skipper

There is a wide range of plant life and flowers to birds and an array of insects.

I was lucky to spot a heron on my wander around the park, and the sparrowhawk, and kingfisher are some of the other birds that can be seen and snapped at Seven Acres.

I had heard about the range of butterflies were on the site - around eighteen different species call Seven Acres home.

Meadow Brown

Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper, and Red Admiral were the four that I spotted on my first and only visit so far. There were also a range of different dragonflies - sadly, none of them were pose for a photo.

Seven Acres is a site that is used by many people from photographers to dog walkers and bikers, so there are plenty of people on the trails around the river and in the fields.

Seven Acres is the kind of place where you could easily lose a day exploring the different habitats and waiting for the wildlife to emerge.

Himalayan Balsam