West Pennine Moors

A beautiful moorland with small bodies of water and a blue sky

West Pennine Moors from the air - Photo by Alex Critchley

The West Pennine Moors are a wild and beautiful area of Lancashire and Greater Manchester. We are working with partners to link up communities for nature's recovery, and find out what the West Pennine Moors means to you.

34 % of Lancashire's resource of blanket bog

18 % of Lancashire's resource of grassland

185 priority species of local concern for conservation

The West Pennine Moors is a unique landscape connecting towns across Lancashire and Greater Manchester. One million people are neighbours to nationally important nature.

With 3 protected Sites of Special Scientific Interest, rich industrial heritage, agriculture, and historic parks and gardens it is as richly diverse for nature as the Northern communities it sits alongside.

Covering 90 square miles, the Moors are surrounded on all sides by the former mill towns of Bolton, Chorley, Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington, Burnley, Haslingden, Ramsbottom and Bury and are only 12 miles from central Manchester. It is a ‘wild space’ on the doorstep for people of the ‘old Lancashire’ towns.

The West Pennine Moors are a key part of the ecological infrastructure of Lancashire and Greater Manchester, even named as an important biodiversity opportunity area in Greater Manchester's Ecological Framework.

In terms of priority species of local concern for conservation on Lancashire’s Biodiversity Action Plan Species, the area has 185 species listed (including 84 plants and 61 birds), and is noted for key isolated populations of twite, brown hare and adder.

West Pennine Moors boundary copyright Lancashire County Council

Key

Point of Interest

Local towns

Community Conversations

We are holding conversations with communities throughout the West Pennine Moors in early 2024, to find out more about what the Moors mean to you, and how they are used.

We're looking to connect with all sorts of people; farmers, hikers, birders, bicyclists, dog walkers - everyone has their own story with the West Pennine Moors, and we want to hear those stories, as well as your vision for the future of the Moors.

We're also collecting information through a survey available at the link below:

West Pennine Moors Survey

If you have any further questions or comments, please drop us an email at wpm-conversations@lancswt.org.uk