Panoramic views: Admiring the dramatic views across the Dee Valley to Wales from the Droppingstone, on Bickerton Hill

Complete the whole Sandstone Trail in Two Days

Looking for a challenge? Walking the Sandstone Trail in two days is tough but exhilarating

Day One: Frodsham to Beeston/Burwardsley

What it’s like: Dramatic wooded hills, sandstone cliffs, overhangs and viewpoints, stunning panoramas, sunlit forest paths and tracks, southern arm of Delamere Forest, glacial features, panoramic views, green lanes, flooded quarry, undulating farmland, marl pits, lovely green lane, lost medieval road, River Gowy, Shropshire Union Canal, Beeston Castle, Peckforton Castle, woodland tracks, upmarket hilltop inn

Start/Parking: Frodsham Main Street
Distance: 27 kilometres/17 miles
Duration: Allow 7 – 10 hours
Difficulty: Moderate-occasionally strenuous: Numerous ups and downs on the first spectacular stretch, then easier and flatter through Delamere Forest
Food and drink: Pubs and cafes in Frodsham; Ring O’ Bells pub opposite Overton Church, Frodsham; Goshawk pub, Mouldsworth; Manley Farm Shop, Manley; Linmere cafe and visitor centre, Delamere Forest; Morris Dancer pub, Kelsall; shops, pubs and cafes in Tarporley; seasonal cafe at Beeston Castle; fine dining at Peckforton Castle; Bickerton Poacher below trail at Bickerton; Pheasant Inn, Higher Burwardsley
Where to stay: Camping & caravan sites in Frodsham, Manley and Delamere. Hotels and B&Bs in Frodsham; B&Bs in Kingsley, Manley and Norley; B&Bs, pubs and hotels in Kelsall

Day One - read more

Overton Hill Panorama

The Sandstone Trail, on Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge, starts in Frodsham’s tree-lined Main Street whose traditional weekly market draws people from a wide area. The route climbs steadily past St Lawrence’s Church and the charming Ring o’ Bells pub, before ascending steeply through the woods to the breezy summit of Overton Hill.

The view from here is stunning and takes in the Mersey Estuary, the Welsh hills and Liverpool’s distinctive skyline.

Beyond Overton Hill, the Trail skirts a series of sandstone bluffs along the upper rim of the wooded hills before dropping down steps into atmospheric Dunsdale Hollow.

Woodhouse Hillfort

Beyond Scout Rock, the Trail loops around the decayed earthen ramparts of Woodhouse hillfort, the first of six impressive prehistoric hillforts that dominate the hilltops along the Trail.

The route drops down through the Woodland Trust’s dappled Snidley Moor Wood, past the Scout Camp, and crosses undulating fields to Alvanley Cliff. The ever-changing views to the west along this stretch are a delight. Past half-timbered Austerson Old Hall, the Trail runs past tiny Yarrangall Green and around the boundaries of the New Pale’s medieval deer park at Manley Common.

Ahead is vast and ancient Delamere Forest, now a popular destination for walkers, mountain bikers, day trippers and picnickers

Walking in Delamere Forest

From Manley Common, the Sandstone Trail, on Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge, runs through leafy Delamere Forest. Modern Delamere Forest Park is all that remains of the once vast medieval hunting forests of Mara and Mondrem – where deer, wolves and wild boar roamed until they were hunted out in the 17^th century.

Today, the forest paths and tracks wind through mixed plantations of conifers and broadleaved trees, to pass the huge ink-black lake of Blakemere, busy with gulls and dragonflies in summer.

There is a popular car park, café and visitor centre on the Sandstone Trail at Linmere, as well as a wealth of waymarked and colour-coded circular walks in Delamere Forest. There are lodges, caravan and campsites in the forest.

Eddisbury Hillfort

The Sandstone Trail then rises onto Pale Heights with panoramic views over eight old counties from the modern stone circle and viewing platform on the summit.

Nearby are the impressive ramparts and inturned gateways of Eddisbury hillfort, and the last traces of Watling Street, the old Roman road between Chester and Manchester. The Trail then descends through sun-dappled Nettleford Wood to the old toll cottage and car park at Gresty’s Waste on the main A56 at Kelsall. From there, it’s a short walk into Kelsall for food, drink and accommodation

Primrosehill Wood

From Gresty’s Waste car park, the Sandstone Trail drops down into Organsdale and then crosses a narrow isthmus of pines to reach Primrosehill Wood, a quieter, southern outlier of Delamere Forest.

Deep among the trees is a curious hidden gorge called Urchin’s Kitchen. It’s an atmospheric glacial melt-water channel formed at the end of the last Ice Age and well worth a visit today.

Leaving the forest, the Trail climbs up to the ridge overlooking the Welsh hills, before descending the lovely, one kilometre-long, sunken Sandy Lane bridleway annd green lane as it drops towards Willington.

Panoramic Views

Beyond Willington the Sandstone Trail crosses undulating Cheshire farmland with stunning panoramas over the Dee Valley to the Welsh hills, and east to the Pennines, with ruined medieval Beeston Castle standing out high on its sandstone crag, directly ahead.

For a while the Sandstone Trail runs through delightful green lanes with names like Old Gypsy Lane, Gullet Lane and Back Lane, to the pretty market town of Tarporley with its comfortable hotels, inns, restaurants and coffee shops. It’s the ideal place to treat yourself to refreshments.

Beeston Castle

Beyond Tarporley, the Sandstone Trail runs through the green tunnel of the ancient Back Lanes before dropping down to cross the Shropshire Union canal at Wharton’s Lock. It’s a picturesque spot with its white-painted canal bridge, locks and close-up view of mighty Beeston Crag ahead.

Across the tiny River Gowy, the Trail skirts below the stunning bulk of Beeston Crag, surmounted by its ruined medieval castle. Known as the ‘Castle of the Rock’, Beeston Castle is one of the wonders of Cheshire and enjoys probably the best views from the summit of any castle in England.

Recent excavations suggest the hilltop was an important place throughout prehistory; and the outer bailey’s medieval curtain wall overlies a late Bronze Age and Iron Age rampart and defended gateway.

Peckforton Castle

Beyond Beeston Castle, the Sandstone Trail crosses open farmland before ascending the eastern flanks of the wooded Peckforton Hills. High above is magnificent Peckforton Castle, an authentic Victorian replica of a medieval castle that is now a luxurious hotel and restaurant.

The Trail traverses the oak clad hills before climbing briefly to the superb Pheasant Inn at Higher Burwardsley with its en-suite accommodation, fine food, real ales, beer garden and sunlit terrace overlooking the distant Welsh hills. Nearby is the charming Burwardsley Post Office and Cafe pod at Burwardsley ‘Poffee’.

Day Two: Beeston/Burwardsley to Whitchurch

What it’s like: Upmarket hilltop inn, stunning views to east and west, old copper mine, ancient saltway, sandstone caves, Iron Age hillfort, rare lowland heath, rolling Cheshire farmland, flooded sand quarries, old coach road, Bickley Brook, lost chapel in the fields, ice contact slope, pre-glacial lake bed, canal towpath into Whitchurch

Start/Parking: Old Cheshire Workshops car park (near the Pheasant Inn), Higher Burwardsley
Distance: 23 kilometres/14 miles
Duration: Allow 6 – 7 hours
Difficulty: Moderate: Some ups and downs to start with, followed by gentle field paths and level canal towpath into Whitchurch
Food and drink: Pheasant Inn, Higher Burwardsley; Bickerton Poacher, below Bulkeley Hill; cafe at Grindley Brook; Willeymoor Lock pub
Where to stay: Pheasant Inn, Higher Burwardsley; camping and rooms, Bickerton Poacher, below Bulkeley Hill; Peckforton Castle; pods and shepherd’s huts at Burwardsley; B&Bs at farms en route; pubs, hotels, B&Bs in Whitchurch.

Day Two - read more

Bulkeley Hill

From Higher Burwardsley and the black-and-white Pheasant Inn, the Sandstone Trail crosses the delightfully named Elephant Track and skirts the woods to reach the picturesque Victorian gatehouse on Fowler’s Bench Lane.

The Trail now climbs through open woodland onto the National Trust’s Bulkeley Hill whose viewpoints span the eastern Cheshire Plain, Peak District, Cannock Chase and the Pennines.

Beyond Coppermine Lane, the Sandstone Trail traverses the steep western scarp of the hills, past Rawhead Farm to the curious Droppingstone Well, hidden Queen’s Parlour and Bloody Bones caves, and on to Rawhead itself — the highest point on the Trail with amazing 270˚ panoramic views.

The Trail crosses the main Nantwich to Wrexham road close to the old copper mine chimney before climbing once more onto the lovely Bickerton Hills.

Owned and managed by the National Trust, they are rich with a mixture of open woodland and lowland heath. Purple heather, bilberry and yellow gorse brighten the hills, and there are stunning views at every turn.

Bickerton Hill

Beyond a hidden cave called Mad Allen’s Hole, and a touching memorial called Kitty’s Stone, the Sandstone Trail crosses the ramparts of Iron Age Maiden Castle.

It’s perched on the edge of a sheer sandstone bluff, with views around the compass: to Wales, the Shropshire Hills, the Peak District and the Pennines. For many walkers, Bickerton Hill is their favourite part of the Sandstone Trail.

The Trail drops down through Hether Wood to emerge at the end of southern end of the sandstone ridge, close to Larkton Hall Farm.

Cheshire Farmland

Away from the southern end of Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge, the Sandstone Trail heads south across undulating farmland towards Whitchurch.

Walk past Larkton Hall Farm, where cheese is still made daily, past a series of overgrown ponds that started life as sandpits where glacial sand was dug for making cement and footings for local buildings.

The Trail circles Manor House Farm, now a stud farm for racehorses, owned by a famous footballer. Beyond Hampton Green, the route crosses rolling farmland to Bickley Brook, then traces its bank south to Bickleywood.

Shropshire Union Canal

Further south, the Sandstone Trail runs past the mysterious Barhill Fall, and on to Old St Chad’s — the tiny ‘chapel in the fields’, now cut off from any roads.

Past half-timbered Pearl Farm, the Trail drops down to meet the Llangollen arm of the Shropshire Union Canal at Willeymoor Lock and its isolated waterside tavern.

Ahead, the Trail follows the quiet rural canal on into Whitchurch to reach the southern end of the Sandstone Trail