Route developed by: TS / DdM

Starting from The Ackers Activity Centre, Golden Hillock Rd B11 2PY

[1] Start your walk from the booking office, turning right in front of it, following the Millstream Way sign: look for a plaque on the path surface indicating compass points.

Follow the path round the side of the booking office and by a bridge leading to the climbing wall on the right, fork left uphill through woodland on a tarmac path, passing an adventure trail on the right. Keep ahead through a more open area and some gateposts. Once through the gateposts, a bridge with white railings crosses the Grand Union Canal. (A).

[2] Cross the canal and follow the drive as it bends left ahead, and shortly turn right on a footbridge across Small Heath Highway. On the other side go down the steps or ramp and turn left along Waverley Road. At the junction with Byron Road, go through the red brick gateposts on the right into Small Heath Park. (B).

[3] Once in the park,  fork right and walk past the Fish Pond on your left. Continue to walk around the perimeter of the park until you pass a playground and then a sports pitch, both on your left. Exit the park next to a roundabout then head left along Golden Hillock Road towards Poet’s Corner. (C).

The junction is so named because all the streets around the park are named after poets. On the right along Golden Hillock Road is the new (2007) City Academy Golden Hillock (D), a community college and Sure Start centre, a secular building but with pointed arch windows and decoration inspired by Islamic architecture. Next door is a fine 19th century house with a neo-classical portico. You then reach the entrance to the beautiful Central Jamai Masjid Ghamkol Sharif mosque (E) at Poet’s Corner, one of the largest mosques in Western Europe with room for a congregation of nearly 5,000 people. Construction began on the mosque during Ramadan in 1992.

[4] At Poet’s Corner roundabout bend left with the pavement. On the left, next door to the mosque, is the impressive Small Heath School with its distinctive tower, a fine Victorian Gothic building with Arts and Crafts touches, built in 1892 by distinguished Birmingham architects Martin & Chamberlain. In front of the school use the crossing on the right to cross the busy Small Heath Highway (A45). On the other side, turn right then left to continue along Golden Hillock Road, crossing the railway, passing   Small Heath Station (F) and then crossing the Grand Union Canal (G).

Look out for the view of the city centre including the Rotunda and Debenham’s building on the right. The land between the railway and canal was once part of one of the main factories of the Birmingham Small Arms company, BSA, established in the Gun Quarter in 1861 and later famous as a manufacturer of motorbikes.

[5] Shortly you pass a green area on the left, and soon after this turn left to follow the drive into the Ackers Activity Centre (H). Alternatively you can go through a gap in the fence before the drive, past the swings and across the grass, heading for the right hand corner of the field, to the right of a brick pavilion, to join the drive. This is one of Europe’s biggest adventurous activity centres in a beautiful semi-rural site.

[6] Follow the drive, fork left through a barrier and turn immediately right along a footpath, following signs to reach Ackers’ wooden booking office with the dry ski slopes behind.

The Ackers has a main 100m long synthetic ski slope and two 30m “nursery slopes” used for skiing and tobogganing. There are toilets inside the building and a viewing window to watch activity on the slope.