Local Life - Wigan - September 2021

59
by Chris Pearce
Distance: 6¼ Difficulty: Medium Plus
Frodsham
& Helsby
Occasionally when I collate a walk for Local Life, I get a
suspicion that there’s room for improvement. The Sandstone
Trail in spring 2020 was a case in point; the first half of the
walk was a cracker, the back half just ok, so I popped over
the Mersey again recently to scratch that itch. This wellsignposted
6¼ mile walk centres around two prehistoric
hilltops enclosures; Helsby Hill and Woodhouse Hill. There
are lots of climbs and some sheer cliffs on this walk, so
I would recommend that you leave the kids at home and
make sure you wear suitable footwear.
Start the walk at the car park for Frodsham’s
war memorial (WA6 6BG) and take the
steep road downhill. Turn left at the
Belle Monte Hotel and look for a
footpath on your right which
plunges you into
the woods. After a few short steps, the path forks so take
the left fork uphill.
After a few minutes walking – follow the yellow ‘S’ sign
and go up the sandstone steps and you’ll arrive at the war
memorial, the first of many impressive viewpoints on the
walk. Carry on in the same direction past the war memorial
and ease downhill for 200 yards – then take the lower path.
The track continues, hugging the side of the hill in the
shadow of sandstone cliffs until you ascend once more,
briefly arriving at an open area at the top and then again
sinking into the woods. You’ll soon arrive at a crossroad
of paths by some wooden steps, turn right here following
the NCW sign and you’ll arrive at multiple flights of steep
steel steps, Take the steps carefully to the bottom of the
sandstone valley and you arrive at a fingerpost – turn
right to Carriage Drive.