Just days after it was hinted that Manchester’s popular sky park could become a garden bridge - connecting Pomona to the city centre - Castlefield Viaduct’s winter programme has been confirmed.

Encouraging visitors to step out of the busy city streets and into a ‘winter wonderland of nature and peace’, this year’s festivities will include lantern-lit wanders, a chill out space and festive plant tours. The viaduct will also be open all the way through the winter holidays until Saturday, January 2.

The viaduct only opened to visitors in July 2022 as a year-long pilot, but has become a hit with residents and day trippers. The National Trust - which runs the free-entry site - extended the pilot scheme to autumn 2024 last summer and have recently employed landscape architects BDP to come up with plans on how it could look in the future, with plans for a 1 km-long ‘garden bridge’ in the works.

READ MORE: Castlefield Viaduct could become 1km-long 'garden bridge' linking Pomona to city centre

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For the festive season, the National Trust has brought back the ‘Lantern Lates’ As the nights draw in Castlefield Viaduct will be transformed into a ‘magical and sparkling’ grotto.

From 3.30pm to 5pm every day, visitors can drop by to wander along the light trail and visit the garden in the sky in a different way. While Lantern Lates was launched last year, it was only open to bookings, whereas this winter, it’s part of our usual free, walk-up opening times.

In two new firsts for the Viaduct, their festive season will also include The Winter Garden Tour on selected dates throughout December. Nature has long associations with this time of the year from holly and ivy to mistletoe and chestnut, and the tour guide will be able to tell visitors about the stories behind some of the winter plants on the viaduct.

Also new for this year will be the new ‘Cosy Corner', taking over the visitors centre. After a walk through the winter garden, those coming along are invited to book a spot and take some time out to warm up and chill out.

This December, the visitor building will be transformed into a relaxing spot with books, board games and easy crafts, plus the spectacular views of the wild viaduct and Castlefield below. Visitors are invited to take a break from the rush, settle in with a good read or simply watch nature go by between December 11 and January 1.

Castlefield Viaduct is a temporary urban green space created by the National Trust. The project launched last summer transformed the disused railway viaduct originally opened in 1893 and closed in 1969.

The viaduct is open all the way through the winter holidays until Saturday, 2 January. There are the regular booked morning tours on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays or you can take a winter wander after 12.30pm those days and all day Wednesdays, weekends and Bank Holidays.

The viaduct is closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It will then be closed between 2 January until 10 February 2024 to refresh the gardens and make sure everything is ready for spring and summer.