St Aidan's

St Aidan's is a 355-hectare (880-acre) nature park located between Leeds and Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. The land was formerly an opencast coal mining area that was flooded in 1988, after the riverbank collapsed. Repairs and remediation required their own Act of Parliament to allow the necessary works to go ahead. Mining ceased at St Aidan's in 2002. The nature park opened to the public in May 2013 under the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). However, the car park and visitor centre were subsequently closed in July 2013 due to unresolved land issues. With the successful transfer of St Aidan's to Leeds City Council, a 99-year lease was signed from the council to the RSPB in March 2017. The site is now open and functioning as an RSPB nature park. It is open every day excluding Christmas Day with the visitor centre open from 9.30 am to 5 pm February – October and 9.30 am to 4 pm November – January. RSPB St Aidan's Nature Park is designed for both people and wildlife and is open for a wide range of activities, from bird watching, cycling and walking to jogging, horse riding and dog walking. In 2023, it was the location of a site-specific performance by the National Youth Theatre, entitled Nest, part of Leeds 2023.