Start - Victoria Station
Finish - Sale Water Park Metrolink
Distance - 7.5 Miles
Geocaches - 4
Pubs - 3
There was a recent Twitter Poll from a podcast that asked the question "Do you have a favourite Beery City?".
The most popular answer was Manchester - with voters waxing lyrical about its mixture of timeless classic boozers, brewery tap rooms and hipster craft bars.
This week’s #hopinions folks 👇🏼👇🏼
— Beer O’clock Show #Hopinions (@BeerOClockShow) March 13, 2022
Do you have a favourite beery city & where (in the world) is it?
Excellent news - as I finally get around to starting a new long distance trail.
The Greater Manchester Ringway has been in development for some time. The 20 stages now seem to be fully documented. Like the Capital Ring, London Loop and my own attempt at one in Birmingham - we have a circular route running around a city's border lands. Always a excellent way to explore and make discoveries in the less well trod environs.
As well as finding new watering holes in the suburbs, the GMRW requires me to change public transport in the City Centre. I have ample opportunity to (re)-familiarise myself with classic boozers, brewery taps and hipster craft bars.
If only I can work out how you can buy a public transport SystemOne day pass. You'd think it easy, but wait till you have the pressure of an unintuitive ticket machine, an unmanned station and a queue behind you at Swinton Station - with the Manchester train arriving in 3 minutes. The huffing from behind forced me to abort and resort to downloading the Northern Trains App.
My walk starts at Victoria Station - a meander southbound, looking at the locations of youth based nights out and gigs in the City Centre. Inspiral Carpets at the G-Mex, making me chuckle at the memory of curtain haircuts and bad dancing.
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| Inspiral Carpets - 21-07-1990 - I was there. |
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| They pulled down the Hacienda and built a parking lot. Under some flats. |
Soon find the Bridgewater Canal - a hidden pathway running traffic free south west through Castlefields and onto Old Trafford. Geese, as hard as nails, refusing to give up the towpaths to anyone.
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| Didn't Peter Schmeichel own Beetham Tower's Penthouse Suite? |
Old Trafford is a chance to admire some of the City's sporting heritage. Its an international break weekend, so Man United are not at home but there is still a throng of sightsee-ers and more hot dog stands than you get at the Hawthorns on Match day.
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| Best, Law, Charlton |
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| Old Trafford |
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| Another Old Trafford |
The final stages of the walk are surprisingly rural. Through Longford Park - the former home of Industrialist John Rylands and into Sale Water Park for a short stretch along the River Mersey.
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| More inner city walking serenity |
A fine start to a new adventure. For post walk refreshments, I avoid Jackson's Boat pub when I queue and determine that drinks are dispensed in plastic glasses. Instead, I let the Blue Metroline, whisk me back to the City Centre. Tube style contactless touch in points, avoiding ticket confusion.
The high rating in the #Hopinions Twitter poll needs to be confirmed;
The Classic Boozer - Possibly my favourite, a revisit to the City Arms. A oasis of calm in quiet Kennedy Street, where there is the unusual sight of three pubs in a direct row. If you count a JDW.
Half a dozen cask handpulls on and Red Willow Feckless - a traditional English Bitter - seemed most in keeping with the surroundings.
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| City Arms splendour |
The Tap Room(s) - A lengthy walk across the City, across the edges of the Northern Quarter and into Ancoats. On an industrial estate there is not one but two tap rooms - staring at each other across their car parks. Little to choose between the Track Brewing Company and Cloudwater. The former in an airy sectioned off space of the main brewery. The latter on a mezzanine floor above the brewery, where you can see the wooden casks gently aging their contents.
A great atmosphere in both, so well worth the extra walking. Unsure whether I would do it at night :-)
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| Track Brewing - my rucksack and empty Next New Sun Cask on the RHS |
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| Cloudwater - and the improbably named Chubbles II: Discovering Pilsengris |
The Hipster - There was no way I was going to miss the Mild at Bundobust. The most "on trend" beer of 2022.
I'm from the West Midlands. Mild was never off-trend.
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| My daughter, Okra Fries and Bundobust Mild |
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