Spending time outdoors in nature has a hugely positive effect on our wellbeing, but you don’t have to live in a rural area to experience the benefits. Kevin Rushby shares some of his favourite city parks, heaths, wetlands and gardens
Bristol
The only British city to ever win the European Green Capital award (for 2015), Bristol is an urban park-lover’s paradise. Close to the centre is Castle Park, a garden with ruins that is linked across the river by the elegant Castle footbridge. There’s a good five-mile walk to be had along the river, linking gardens and the docks, including Brandon Hill Park. Climb the 30-metre-tall (105ft) Cabot Tower for a fine city view. Scattered all around the city are some great parks worthy of cycle adventures. To the south there is Victoria Park, presided over by the colourful terraced houses of St Luke’s Crescent. Nearby, a real gem is Arnos Vale Victorian cemetery, 18 hectares (45 acres) of greenery where, with luck, you can spot woodpeckers, deer and even slow worms basking on tombstones.
Glasgow
Arriving at Glasgow Central, you might be forgiven for wondering where all the green spaces might be, given the extent to which the city’s formidable architecture dominates. Dotted around, however, are some magnificent spots: a top place to go is Kelvingrove, a park with everything for a day out – cafes (try An Clachan), a brilliant museum, monuments, and fountains (the Stewart is a good meeting point). Heading east, check out the Necropolis, last resting place of Victorian grandees. Southwards, the gem is Pollok country park, a lovely day out, even though the unparalleled Burrell Collection is currently closed (till 2020). In the west are the Botanic Gardens, with their fascinating hothouse collection.
Belfast
For outsiders, the image of Belfast tends not to be a green one, but this is a city with superlative parks, and even a functioning forest: Belvoir park forest is a 75-hectare (185-acre) site that includes the RSPB headquarters. There’s a lovely, short walk that runs through the park along the river Lagan. Closer to the centre are the Botanic Gardens – popular with students and office workers, the unique Tropical Ravine is superb. Recently opened up again after a £3.8m restoration, the listed building’s walkways give views of a deep ravine planted with cycads, ferns and palms. If you’re cycling, head up the hill westwards to Napoleon’s Nose, a distinctive peak in Cave Hill country park, famed for inspiring the sleeping giant in Gulliver’s Travels. At the river mouth, Victoria Park gives views over Harland and Wolff shipyard, where the Titanic was built.
London
Given London property prices, you might reasonably expect the city’s green spaces to shrink, not grow. But there have been recent additions, notably Walthamstow Wetlands, a huge area of lakes with 13 miles of trails just a few minutes’ walk from Tottenham Hale station. There is great birdwatching, fishing, cycling and a decent cafe, the Engine House. Also new are the Woodberry Wetlands, a green space that had existed since 1833, but only opened to the public in 2013. Right beside Finsbury Park, it is a good inner-city birding site: you can spot red kites and even marsh harriers. Not exactly new, but renewed, is Burgess Park off the Old Kent Road in Southwark, which recently had an £8m facelift, introducing a bigger lake, new bridge and play areas. Downriver from Greenwich, there are fascinating brownfield parks.
Birmingham
The Black Country, if you didn’t know, is actually green: Birmingham has hundreds of parks, many of them vast. Kingfisher country park, for example, runs for 11km along the river Cole, while Cannon Hill Park covers around 100 hectares (250 acres). Within that space you have lakes, tennis, golf, playgrounds, running trails and tearooms – this place really can do a full family day out. If you believe that any great park must be in search of a stately home, then try Aston Park – it has a magnificent Jacobean palace. All the above, however, are dwarfed by Sutton Park, a 970-hectare (2,400-acre) national nature reserve six miles north of the centre, which boasts 22 species of butterfly, plus a few rarities. Look out for the startling Camberwell Beauty – unseen since 1996.
Edinburgh
Holyrood Park certainly has the size (263 hectares/650 acres) and the eye-catching eminence of Arthur’s Seat, but this former royal hunting park also leads through to the less well-known Dr Neil’s Garden, a lovely area created by two local GPs who used caravan holidays in Europe as plant-hunting expeditions. Other off-the-beaten track green spaces in Edinburgh include the Archivists’ Garden, one of several small city gardens tucked away from the busy streets. Also check out Dunbar’s Close, a 17th-century garden, and the roof garden at the National Museum of Scotland. About a mile north from the centre is Inverleith Park, which neighbours the magnificent Royal Botanic Garden.
Cardiff
Few cities can boast a green space like Cardiff’s Bute Park, a vast expanse of woodland, grass, trails and playgrounds close to the city centre. Its true magic, however, is that it connects, all along the banks of the river Taff, to several other parks: across the Millennium footbridge check out Sophia Gardens – home to Glamorgan Cricket Club, plus cycle hire, horse-riding centre and cafes – then various meadows, parks and gardens all the way north to the M4. Forest Farm country park is worth a visit: the footpath along the old Glamorganshire canal is rich in birdlife, including kingfishers. Also right in the heart of the city is another, much smaller, green space: the Victorian roof garden on top of the Bute Tower in Cardiff Castle.
Liverpool
Green may not be the first colour that pops into your mind when thinking of Liverpool, but the city is blessed with great parks. Stanley Park, a classic Victorian creation, separates the Reds and the Blues – the two football grounds of Anfield and Goodison Park. There’s a good cafe in the Isla Gladstone conservatory, plus fishing lake, playground and a red sandstone wall that inspired the Redwall series of children’s books by Brian Jacques. On the other side of the city, check out Sefton Park and Calderstones. From the latter you could walk the mile to another green space: St Peter’s church, Woolton, scene of arguably the most important musical moment in the 20th century: the first public performance by Lennon and McCartney. Also in this quiet churchyard is the gravestone that inspired the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby.
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