Haslam Park Nature Reserve: habitat beside the Lancaster Canal
The only one of Preston's reserves inside a formal park, which makes it the one to see first.
The Haslam Park nature reserve is an area within Haslam Park in north west Preston, managed for habitat, while the rest of the park is managed as ordinary parkland. The Lancaster Canal runs along the boundary.
Being inside a park makes it the easiest of the reserves to visit and the best introduction to what the others are like. You can walk from surfaced path to rough path in a few steps and see directly what the difference in management produces: less mowing, standing deadwood, and a denser understorey.
It is also the only reserve with a level, surfaced approach, because the canal towpath runs to it. For the rest of the network, which is on the river corridor on the other side of the city, see the nature reserves index.
The one that is not on the river
This is also the only one of the six that can be reached on a level surface from end to end, and that single fact decides who can visit it at all.
This site is the exception on both counts. It lies west of the city, on the Lancaster Canal — a canal corridor, where every other site here is a floodplain one. It also sits inside a designed park, which makes it the only reserve here you can reach on a made path in ordinary shoes.
What the canal corridor is like
A canal is a linear habitat with a towpath, so it is flat, continuous and easy to follow — the opposite of the steep unfenced river slopes east of the city. That combination of a Victorian park on one side and unmanaged ground on the other makes this the best introduction to the reserves for anybody who has not walked the corridor before.
The park itself carries the fuller treatment: see Haslam Park.
Reaching it from the city
This is the exception, because it lies west of the city. The Lancaster Canal towpath reaches it from the city on the flat, which makes it the only reserve here approachable on a made surface the whole way, and the western arc of the Guild Wheel passes close by with no climbing in it.
For the six river-corridor sites the approach is the Ribble path east of Avenham and Miller Parks, which is a different kind of walk entirely.
Questions about Haslam Park Nature Reserve
Where is the Haslam Park nature reserve?
Inside Haslam Park in north west Preston, with the Lancaster Canal along its boundary.
Why is Haslam Park's reserve the easiest to visit?
Because it sits inside a formal park with surfaced paths, and the canal towpath gives it a level approach. The other reserves are on the river corridor with informal paths.
What is the difference between the reserve and the rest of Haslam Park?
Management. The reserve area is managed for habitat — less mowing, standing deadwood, a denser understorey — while the rest of the park is managed as ordinary parkland.