Book your visit
Please note you need to book tickets to Castlefield Viaduct. You can book for today up until 8am. Every Thursday time slots will be available for the next 14 days.
Project
Mosschester
Uncover the secret stories of moss in Greater Manchester. There’s far more to moss than meets the eye – it’s often overlooked but it’s full of rich histories and stories. It's our unsung environmental hero.
Greater Manchester's Moss
From Moss Side to Holcombe Moor, Greater Manchester has a very mossy history. Wet, peaty landscapes once covered large parts of the region. Historically, they were used as farmlands, industrial era wastelands, and even crossed by early railways like the Liverpool - Manchester line.
Mosses around Greater Manchester, especially peat-forming species like Sphagnum, help fight climate change by capturing carbon. Local restoration projects that rewet landscapes and replant key moss species are now underway all around Greater Manchester - including at National Trust sites such as Holcombe and Marsden Moors.
key facts
250 million
Mosses are ancient and full of history – they are among the earliest known forms of life and date back more than 250 million years.
20,000
There are up to 20,000 species of moss, they occur on every continent and in every ecosystem habitable by plants that use sunlight for energy.
5
There are 5 key creatures that live in Moss, including Moss Piglets (otherwise known as Tardigrades), Rotifers, Nematodes, Mites and Gastrorichs.
Moss Moments
Uncover the hidden mossy history of Greater Manchester with The National Trust.
Mosschester at Castlefield Viaduct
For bookable Mosschester events and Castlefield Viaduct events, visit the Castlefield Viaduct events page.
Want to learn about moss at home? Download the Mosschester activity pack.
You might also be interested in
We're working with The University of Manchester's MossWorlds Project to deliver Mosschester.
We're working with Manchester City Council's parks team to deliver Mosschester.
MossWorlds
MossWorlds is an interdisciplinary project based at the University of Manchester that brings together academics, museum curators and local artists to ‘re-story’ moss, those plants so central to Manchester’s history and future. In the city, the lives of mosses and people unfold in close proximity - yet urban mosses are easily overlooked or ignored. Collaborating with moss, we set out to explore different ways of thinking about place and community; through moss we connect everyday urban encounters to the global questions raised by climate and ecological crisis.
Mind bog-gling new study reveals Marsden Moor stores over a million tonnes of carbon
To mark World Bog Day (Sunday 28 July), peatland experts working together with the National Trust at Marsden Moor in West Yorkshire have found that the moor’s peat stores at least one million tonnes of carbon, further evidence that peatlands can play a crucial role in tackling climate change.
Restoring peat on Holcombe Moor and Stubbins Estate
Discover the work we've been doing to restore, conserve and manage Holcombe Moor’s precious landscape.
Eyes on the Bog at Marsden Moor
Healthy peatlands are vital for our environment, with the peat on Marsden Moor holding over 1 million tons of carbon, it is crucial that we keep the carbon in the ground and make sure peatlands thrive. Discover more about Eyes on the Bog and how it can help us to monitor the health of Marsden Moor.
Mosschester Activity Pack
At home activity pack for Mosschester