Rocket robin?: A friendly robin perches on a Sandstone Trail sign close to Beeston Castle

The Sandstone Trail’s distinctive yellow plastic waymarker discs feature an arrow and a black boot print containing the letter ‘S’.

Waymarkers are fixed to stiles, posts, fences and trees, and indicate the direction as you stand directly in front of them. Most paths are well used and clear, but some field paths may be less obvious. Some paths skirt field edges, while others head straight across. Look for waymarked stiles or gates in the far hedge, or darker lines in the grass showing where others have walked.

Waymarkers and Fingerposts

Wooden fingerposts are located at major junctions and wherever the route is unclear. They show the direction, destination, and distance in miles. Most also display the Sandstone Trail symbol of a black boot print containing the letter ‘S’ on a yellow background.

Other fingerposts show side paths associated with the Trail; these are waymarked with a plain yellow arrow on a black background.

Maps

The best maps for exploring the Sandstone Trail, on Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge, are those published by the Ordnance Survey. Although the Trail is shown on the silver and magenta covered Landranger 1:50,000 series, the larger scale, extra detail, and field boundaries of the orange covered Explorer 1:25,000 series make them every serious walker’s map of choice.

Two Explorer maps cover the Trail: 267 Northwich and Delamere Forest

[North] and 257 Crewe and Nantwich [South].

Trail Information Boards

More than twenty distinctive, blue metal-framed Information Boards appear at regular intervals along the Sandstone Trail.

Each contains a route description, map, photographs of the key points of interest, transport information, and Trail updates. In addition to those at main car parks, boards are located:

  • Outside the Bear’s Paw, Frodsham;
  • At Beacon Hill car park, Frodsham;
  • At Barnsbridge Gates car park, Delamere Forest Park;
  • Outside Linmere Visitor Centre, Delamere Forest Park;
  • In the Vale Royal District Council car park on the Yeld, Kelsall;
  • At Gresty’s Waste car park, on the A556 at Kelsall; at Summertrees
  • Tearoom, Willington;
  • On Willington Lane, Willington;
  • At the Shady Oak pub, on the canal north of Beeston Castle;
  • Close to the entrance to Beeston Castle;
  • At the Cheshire Workshops/Candle Factory, Higher Burwardsley;
  • At the Bickerton Poacher pub, on the A534 at Bulkeley;
  • At the Coppermine Inn, on the A534 near Brown Knowl;
  • On Goldford Lane, opposite Bickerton Church;
  • Near the bottom of Larkton Hill, Duckington;
  • Opposite the Blue Bell Inn, Bell o’ the Hill, Tushingham;
  • In the Horse and Jockey pub car park at Grindley Brook;
  • On the towpath at Willeymoor Lock on the Llangollen Canal;
  • And in the Jubilee Park car park at the bottom of Sherry Mill Hill, in Whitchurch.