Alvanley stroll

(S/E) From the front door of the White Lion, facing the church, turn left and walk along the main village street. At the junction with Helsby Road, follow the road round to the right, past the telephone kiosk. Cross the entrance to Church Way and continue.

(1) Turn right between metal barriers onto a signposted and surfaced footpath, along the edge of a housing estate. At the end, go through a kissing gate into a field and bear left across the field to a further kissing gate. Turn left briefly between fence and hedge, then bear half-right across another field. Go through a gap and follow the right-hand edge of the next field.

(2) On reaching a kissing gate (on your right) at a junction of paths, turn 90 degrees left (ignoring a path leading diagonally left to a stile). Walk across to the projecting corner of the fence and continue ahead (with the fence on your right) towards the thatched farmhouse of Commonside Farm.

Cross a stile and continue to the corner of a riding menage, where the path goes through a metal hand-gate and skirts to the right of the garden to emerge through a final kissing gate into a road. Take a few steps to your left and then turn right by a wooden kissing gate. Follow the path straight across a field and then walk to the left of a wooded area. Turn half-right through a hedge to descend an overgrown field dotted with rabbit holes. After a wooden kissing gate, bear right then left round the edge of a field. Turn right over a footbridge and follow the path out to another road. Turn left and walk downhill until the road bends right.

(3) Take a path on the left that follows a ditch on your right. At a junction of paths by a footbridge, turn left, uphill and away from the bridge, along the field edge. Follow the field edge round to the left, skirting an old pit until you find a wooden kissing gate in a brackeny corner. Walk up the field with a valley to your left to another similar kissing gate and continue beyond until you reach the road.

(4) Turn left for a short distance, then turn right through a metal kissing gate before a bungalow. Walk up the left-hand side of the field to a kissing gate and follow the right-hand field edge thereafter. Go through a kissing gate you passed before, but this time continues along the field edge ahead of you (with views to the church on your right) to emerge in Alvanley near the White Lion.(S/E)

One moderate descent and ascent; some rough ground and short stretches may be muddy or overgrown at times.

The views from craggy Helsby Hill (1413) stretch from the Clwydian mountains in the west to the cathedrals of Liverpool to the north. Recent additions to the view are the windfarm on Frodsham Marsh, which came into operation in February 2017, and the Mersey Gateway bridge, which opened in October 2017. Also visible are the M56 motorway (opened 1971) and the Manchester Ship Canal (opened 1894).

Jacob's Ladder is a short scramble up a sandstone cliff. Although not part of the route as described, enterprising walkers can try it out, returning via Baker's Dozen steps on the Sandstone Trail. The scramble starts at the junction of the Trail with the Carriage Drive above Netherton.

The Sandstone Trail is a 34-mile long-distance footpath from Frodsham to Whitchurch the wooded Mid-Cheshire Ridge, offering some of the most scenic walking in the country and fine views from the numerous sandstone edges.