Weaver Way – Rando' Girls

After our big walk, this was to be a nice short 20km. Huh, never thought I’d write that a few months ago!

The walk picks up a section of the North Cheshire Way, Sandstone Trail and a little of the Weaver Way. This corner of Cheshire around Frodsham and Helsby has quite a few overlapping paths which makes the route planning a bit tricky and a minor detour was needed so I could fully tick off a section of the North Cheshire Way.

We started at Frodsham station, the route is a wiggly circular taking in the sandstone ridge with big views over the Mersey and a section along the river Weaver which was engineered to be navigable in 1732. The weather was gloriously sunny so I bravely left my waterproof trousers at home and took sunscreen and a hat instead. Leaving kit behind always makes me a tad nervous, especially waterproofs even though the forecast was sunny all day and I was such a short distance from home rescue was only a call away; but nervousness is a good prompt to make me check if I am really sure I should leave something behind or not.

Stone steps between two big stone walls head down into the trees

A waymark with NCW on a rock points along a wide sandy path in the trees

A wooded hill in full sun viewed through a gap in some trees

Leaving the station, the route walk hugs the bottom of the ridge, slowly climbing up through the trees. It’s a very pretty place to walk and lovely to explore the many paths among the broadleaf woods and sandstone outcrops some with ornately carved graffiti from over a century ago.

But we were on a mission and joined the North Cheshire Way at an impressively solid flight of stone steps. The route continues to hug the wooded hillside for a couple of kilometres then pops back out into the sunshine heading for Helsby. After a steep climb through more woods, we came to the top of the cliffs above Helsby. A haunt of local climbers, its often soft, friable sandstone is not to be underestimated and requires significant brave-pants to be worn on the harder grades.

Sarah stands on a rock ledge with long views to the horizon

A sandy path with steep banks covered in ferns with tall trees either side

A rock ledge about the trees looing to the wooded Helsby Hill. There are wind turbines and one tiny cloud

At the top of Helsby hill is a trig, which we visited on walk 6 so we gave it another hug (all trigs need a hug) and stopped for a snack. The North Cheshire Way now follows the same tracks as the Longster Trail for a few hundred metres before heading south and on paths I have already logged in the challenge. A very short stretch on the Longster Trail, again already logged, and the route switches to follow the track of the Sandstone Trail. The strategically placed Spirit of the Herd pony sanctuary’s cake stall was too much temptation to resist and having discussed in depth our plans to eat a little better on our walks we stuffed our selves with fudge and brownies. Well its for a good cause and very delicious.

Worn sandstone steps up the cliff. It is very overgrown.

A blondie cake is held up to the camera. The background of feet resting on the stone, trees and distant wind turbines is blurred

Rolling fields and Hawthorn bushes covered in white flowers frames by the entrance to a cave

The Sandstone Trail is one of, if not the best waymarked path so far on the challenge and the map was forgotten until we got to Baker’s Dozen, a flight of steel steps from Dunsdale Hollow which replaced the very worn Jacob’s ladder steps carved into the sandstone. It was here we took a short detour to pick up the North Cheshire Way before retracing our steps under the cliffs covered in carved graffiti, some dating back hundreds of years. Now officially counting towards the North Cheshire Way, the route popped out at the memorial high above Frodsham with more long views to North Wales and Liverpool.

Now the walk headed down off the ridge and into lush meadows and arable fields before arriving at the banks of the river Weaver. Canada geese, moorhens and mallard ducks were abundant in the reeds in the banks and a long-abandoned lock. At the road bridge we headed back into town and ate even more cake sat in the sun. Perfect!

Video of the walk HERE

The route is available on the Ordnance Survey website HERE

Cheshire Challenge distance	15.8km
Path walked	North Cheshire Way, Sandstone Trail and Weaver Way
Total distance	20km
Total ascent	609m
OS map	OS Explorer 267
Date walked	May 2021
Time taken	6 hours 20 minutes
Cake	Kit Kat blondie from Spirit of the Herd AND cherry sponge cake!
Dance pose	90’s rave…
Total Cheshire Challenge distance completed:	385km (1500km total)

The stats

It has been a long, long time since I walked 20 km. Mentally this seemed like a huge challenge, although lockdown had meant I walked almost daily I had no idea if I could walk 20km in one go. I decided to do a solo linear walk with my husband dropping me off and collecting me: if I had to stop I could always call for an early pick-up. As I wanted to test my endurance and not my navigation, a canal walk seemed to fit the bill.

The Weaver Way runs from the top of Audlem locks on the Shropshire Union Canal, right on the southern edge of Cheshire, all the way to Frodsham broadly following the river Weaver. Its 64km long and the longest of the routes that is entirely within the county of Cheshire.

A green footpath sign against a leafy hedge — Weaver Way Waymarks

I started the walk at Audlem. This unfortunately meant I had to walk back up the 15 locks to the actual start of the Weaver Way, but it was a lovely day and the locks are lovely. After loitering long enough to look like I had intended to walk up the locks, I turned and headed north. The walk crosses the river Weaver twice on aqueducts, once north of Audlem where the Weaver is little more than a big stream and again just before Church Minshull by which time it has grown to a river. The stretch to Nantwich from Overwater marina is straight and surrounded by flat farmland. But it is far from dull, there was so much wildlife from geese grazing in the fields, moorhens dabbling along the towpath and juicy ripe blackberries too irresistible not to eat. At Nantwich there is the option to detour through the town, but I chose to stay on the towpath which was now busy with narrowboats. As the canal heads out of Nantwich it crosses the Chester Road on a short but impressive black and white painted aqueduct.

A black and white waymark on a fence post — The Crewe and Nantwich circular walk crosses and joins the Weaver Way

It was at this point I witness what was almost an incredible encounter. A man was busy, head down repairing his narrowboat. As I approached, a kingfisher flew out from the trees on the opposite bank went to land on his back, changed it’s mind at the last moment, briefly landed on the bow behind him and flew back into the trees. As I walked past him I said what had happened and we shared a moment of delight at such a beautiful bird.

a selfie of a woman in outdoor gear with trees, a river and harvested fields in the background — The canal passing over the Weaver

Onward and I was soon at Hurleston Junction where the Llangollen Canal meets the Shropshire Union Canal, and a place I will visit at least twice more on the Cheshire Challenge. From here it was a few kilometres to the turning point at Barbridge Junction and along the grandly named Shropshire Union Canal Middlewich Branch. More winding and a little wilder than the main branch I recalled cycling down this towpath, chasing down a friend’s narrowboat a few years before. Weary legs carried me on and, 24km later (not counting the walk to the top of Audlem locks) I reached bridge 14 and the end of the walk.

Video of the walk HERE

The route is available on the Ordnance Survey website HERE

Cheshire Challenge distance	24.5km
Path walked	Weaver Way
Total distance	24.5km
Total ascent	110m
OS map	OS Landranger 257, 267
Date walked	26th July 2020
Time taken	5 hours 44 minutes
Cake	Sponge cake
Dance pose	Ballet barre work
Total Cheshire Challenge distance completed	80.5km (1500km total)

Walk stats

Tag: Weaver Way

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Cheshire Challenge walk 4 – Weaver Way