Cheshire – A Dog Walker’s Guide: Thurstaston

Start: Wirral Country Park Visitor Centre Parking: At the Visitor Centre Distance: 5 miles.

Ordnance Survey Maps: Explorer 266, Wirral and Chester (GR SJ239834).

Dog Factors:

Road walking: Altogether about 700 yards on pavement (Oldfield Road and Pipers Lane) and another 500 yards along Banks Road which is a no-through road with a car park at the end.

Livestock: None.

Stiles: None.

Nearest vets: Churchview Veterinary Centre, Heswall.

The Walk

1  Leave the visitor centre on the Wirral Way heading towards Heswall and continue for ½ mile to a sign for dungeon Woods. Turn left here and follow the narrow gravelled track up into the woods. Cross the stream on a wooden bridge and climb with the stream in a gully on your right. Pass the waterfalls at the top of the gully and continue over a boardwalk to a T-junction.

2  Turn right here towards Heswall. Keep ahead through a gate to meet a low stone stile in a wall (all dogs can easily pass over or round to the left). Continue past Oldfield Farm to the crossroads, and keep ahead on the pavement beside Oldfield Road. Pass Oldfield Gardens on the right and, in 200 yards, arrive at a tarmacked lane signed as Heswall Dales Nature Reserve.

Turn right here and, at the bottom of the slope, go left on a rough track. With Dale Farm on your right, branch left through a small picnic area and continue into sandy heathland. Keep to the main path, signed with arrows as Wirral Country Park Trail. After a sharp right bend and later a left bend, you will arrive eventually in a close of white houses.

4  At the end of the close turn left into Pipers Lane, then immediately right into Banks Road. This crosses over the Wirral Way Trail and bears right then left to continue to a car park entrance. Keep ahead here to go down to the shore beside Sheldrakes’s Restaurant.

5  Turn right and walk alongside the beach which can be a bit muddy initially. After ¾ mile or so you have the option of taking steps on the right climbing into a grassy area known as Heswall Fields. Managed by the National Trust there are seats on the cliff overlooking the estuary. Leaving the fields in the top right-hand corner you will quickly reach the Wirral Way to return to the visitor centre. To continue on the coastal route, simply keep ahead for another mile until you come beneath cliffs and see a flight of steps, winding up them. At the top of these steps the path bears right to return to the visitor centre.

From Cheshire – A Dog Walker’s Guide, by author Judy Smith, is published by Countryside Books, available from local bookshops, Countryside Books, 3 Catherine Road, Newbury, Berkshire; www.countrysidebooks.co.uk. (ISBN 978 1 84674 302 3).

It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map.