The award-winning Whitaker Gallery & Museum is a multi-purpose venue which celebrates the area’s varied and amazing heritage whilst providing a dynamic, challenging and diverse programme of events, exhibitions and education-based activities. And the cafe’s pretty good too!
Discover Rochdale’s rich history on this guided tour, featuring the newly restored Town Hall, St Chad’s Church, and the Pioneers Museum.
From £20.00
Foundational British synth-pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark play in Rochdale, with support from Peter Hook and the Light and A Certain Ratio.
From £55.00
Three sisters, one bitter-sweet reunion – grief, whisky and buried truths collide in a sharply funny Northern family reckoning.
From £15.00
Neil Young is opening his 2026 UK and European tour in Manchester, stepping into Heaton Park with his newest band, The Chrome Hearts.
From £89.60
Join Jonathan Schofield Tours and explore dark side of Manchester with shocking stories, grubby stories and hilarious stories.
From £20.00
Explore the fascinating history of Brutalism in Manchester, while also exploring the movement’s wider intentions and ideals.
From £20.00
Marking the anniversary of the Christmas Blitz, this walking tour explores Manchester’s history of conflict, from the English Civil Wars to the World Wars and beyond.
From £20.00
Band on the Wall bring people together to make, as well as watch, music. Join them to learn folk tunes from all over the world.
The Eagle and Child in Ramsbottom does what good pubs do best, and more.
Now ten years old, this double market combines a farmers’ market and a craft fair and provides the perfect excuse to visit the picturesque town of Ramsbottom, which nestles in the Lancashire foothills to the north of Manchester.
Helmed by chef-owners Fiona and Joe Botham, this tapas restaurant in Ramsbottom serves exclusively Spanish drinks and some of the best small plates going.
Colleen’s is a casual dining neighbourhood restaurant in the heart of Ramsbottom serving seasonal dishes.
Sports venue in Ramsbottom and home to the annual Ramsbottom Festival.
Burnley’s Panopticon, ‘Singing Ringing Tree’, is a unique musical sculpture which overlooks Burnley from its position high above the town on Crown Point. Constructed from pipes of galvanised steel stacked in layers, this Panopticon takes the form of a tree bending to the winds and harnesses the energy of those winds to produce a low, tuneful song.
Historic house, art gallery and museum. Museum houses a variety of displays, encompassing natural history, Egyptology, local history, textiles, decorative art and regional furniture. Art gallery is focused on Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite art, “with some earlier paintings as well”.
Burrs Country Park lies on the River Irwell covering an area of 36 hectares of scenic countryside, one mile northwest of Bury town centre.
The Weavers Triangle is a modern name for an area on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal that was once at the heart of Burnley’s textile industry. The name was first used in the 1970s, as interest developed in preserving Burnley’s industrial heritage, and refers to the roughly triangular shape of the region.
Burnley Mechanics Theatre showcases an array of talent; touring shows and local theatre also.
Glassmonkey Studio is the largest glass fusing studio in the area. The studio is home to a gallery selling handmade fused glassware jewellery, art and greeting cards. They also host regular workshops for fused glass, soap making, enamelling, and silver clay jewellery making.
Affectionately referred to as the ‘Downton of the North’, Gawthorpe Hall was redesigned in the 1850s by Sir Charles Barry, designer of the Houses of Parliament and the ‘real’ Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle.
Classic texts and new work meet in this month’s Theatre Guide, with a bumper crop of shows shaped by power, consequence and collective action.
This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.
We have an eclectic mix of gigs for you this month, moving from experimental electronics and noise rock to synth pop, opera, and hyper-local R&B.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.
