16/07/26 - Stanley Park to Stanley Docks, Liverpool

Football Crazy

The day after the night before. That old familiar England supporter feeling. We were so close, yet nowhere near. Even my Gareth Southgate-hating mate was admitting he may have been hasty. 

Only one thing could cheer me up. More football.

Admittedly, I'd booked the rail tickets before consulting the wall chart. The traditional "knocked out of a major tournament" whisky may have been a bad idea, as the alarm went at 6am.

A painless journey to Lime Street and the PlusBus ticket to drop me off at the edge of Stanley Park for my latest Liverpool A-Z walk. Originally hosting the stadiums for Liverpool and Everton, I will have to work for the second location. Anfield takes the early glory with some stunning street art and a celebration of a team that knows how to win.

Stadium in the heart of the community

Stars - present and past - are celebrated in style

Bill made people happy. Thomas did not

Anfield is left behind for Everton Rise - a public park that offers a perfect view over the city. It really shouldn't be missed and if the OS produce a second edition of the AZ book, I would suggest they make this Walk 1. From this view, you get to understand the port city.

The City from Everton Rise

The view also shows Everton's ground - relocated to the docks. This is accessed via Summer Street - an interesting street of Arts and Crafts houses and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.

Looking down the final spur of the Leeds - Liverpool Canal to Stanley Docks

For the new Stadium

Alas, Everton's home feels a little soulless in comparison to the splendour of Anfield. I'm sure the Liverpudlians won't allow it to affect the match-day atmosphere in the way the relocation at West Ham did.

Time to call it a day and a bus back to the city. Through this AZ Guide book, I have been investigating Liverpool for three years. Over that time, the 'Spoons pubs have dropped out of the Good Beer Guide, only to come back in the 2026 edition.

The Captain Alexander allows me to "green" the city centre in the book - but there's nothing new for me to say here.

Architecturally dull, cheap, dirty tables, efficient app service - a sh*t sandwich review

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 18

Walk Inspiration - Liverpool A-Z City Walks, Walk 13

Previous Liverpool A-Z City Walks - Walks 1 and 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6 and 7, Walk 8 and 9, Walk 10, Walk 11 and 12

17/03/26 - Liverpool Architecture and Knowledge

St Patrick's Day Carnage

I knew something was afoot on arrival at Lime Street. Gangs of youth marching around the streets, beers in hand and very much a uniform of green. It's Tuesday, 10am and this is a little unusual - even for the party city that is Liverpool. 

At first, I think there is some sort of sporting event on - most of the tops are sporting. Eventually, I twig. It's St Patrick's Day. The patron saint of skiving off college and wearing minimal clothing.

My walks are from the A-Z City Guide but I feel the centre is done now. Primarily, I am looking for Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian Architecture (Walk 11) and a circuit of the Knowledge Quarter (Walk 12) for the hospitals and universities. 

These streets have been walked before - and there is little new to find. You can see this from the Geocache count. Just 2. No doubt, the Georgian Streets have some very pretty houses but little to photograph in the Knowledge Quarter - especially when the streets are thronged with students boozing.

Skiving Students in front of the Adelphi

When the guidebook says look for interesting doorways, you know you are in trouble

Possibly Canning Street - looking towards the Cathedral

Many back streets cut through

What else is there to do in Liverpool - when only the Good Beer Guide Tick required is the Captain Alexander and I am nowhere near it?

I fire up the Bar Trek App. Liverpool is the most featured city within this app but "Top 10 Real Ales Pub Walking Tour" has to be worth a go. 4 of the 10 make a nice little square in the part of town I am located.

See if you can guess?

Roscoe Head - a Good Beer Guide Ever Present - No further words required

The White Hart is new to me. Once again, I fall in love with a new place. This seems to happen every time I visit Liverpool. Surely the greatest of pub city of them all? It doesn't look much from the outside, but has a well-worn, timeless feel inside. Multiple roomed and on the day that I decide winter is over, a roaring log fire. This is backed up by the students taking advantage of the sun trap beer garden, but with Sir Timbo style upstairs loos, there is constant motion. A first Baltic Best Bitter by the Black Lodge Brewery was perfect.

Best Beer Garden in Town?

But how could you leave this comfort

Next Door - and due to the volume of street-drinkers, no external photos available - is Bar Casa. This is one of the 60 venues that Paul Heaton put a grand behind the bar to celebrate a significant birthday. His 60 favourite pubs in the land. And he looks like the sort of man that can be trusted.

Despite the triangular Bass beer mats, it appeared to be a keg only venue but pleasant enough - proudly celebrating its socialist ideals as decor.

God is in the Casa

The Belvedere is always an oasis of calm - and this proves true even on this, the most mental of days. The same could not be said for The Grapes - where I declared the day done. 

Just in time to watch the parade on the way back to the station.

Red Willow - always a fine pint

Get back to class and leave the Grapes to middle aged bloggers!

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Walk Inspiration - Liverpool A-Z City Walks, Walk 11 and 12

Previous Liverpool A-Z City Walks - Walks 1 and 2, Walk 3, Walk 4, Walk 5, Walk 6 and 7, Walk 8 and 9, Walk 10

07/10/25 - Thurstaston Common for the Mill at Irby

All about the Bass

Our final walk on the Wirral. We've enjoyed it. So many options for off lead walking, with the Wirrall Way, The English Coast Path and little pockets of woodland. We explore two today; Thurstaston Common and Harrock Woods.

The common, the bigger of the two. Early highlights at the hill summit, with a toposcope memorial and a trigpoint.

Billy at the Toposcope

The Views to Wales

A break at Irby Village, where we find a coffee and cake stop and the former haunt of a popular beat combo.

The streets won't forget

Harrock Woods are a thin strip of woodland that leads to great bridle paths and onwards to the Irby Mill Pub. A recent addition to the Good Beer Guide and proudly proclaiming so on Twitter. With a hint that got Quinno tagged. They have the cask Bass.

Solid looking but not always pub.  Originally a Cafe

The rumours are true

 

Looks can be slightly deceptive. It's only been a pub since 1980. Today, there are very low ceilings and a number of rooms surrounding a central bar. Busy with locals, ramblers and the odd dining table. But it's primarily a drinking pub.

Refreshed, and back home through the woods of Thurstaston Common, attempting to find our way home through the myriad path.

Finding our way through the woods

Walk Details

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 8

Walk Inspiration - Pub Walks on Merseyside, Walk 23

06/10/25 - The Good Beer Guide Pubs of West Kirby

Oktoberfest and Top Service on the Wirral

The best thing about a named storm is the weather that comes in after. A gorgeous autumnal afternoon for a beach walk to the Good Beer Guide Pubs of West Kirby.

2 miles to work up a thirst

There are two ticks available. When they are quite different, that's plenty.

The West Kirby Tap could be filed under the oxymoron of large MicroPub. The tap room for the Spitting Feathers brewery, its tardis like inside. A couple of distinct rooms, with a small bar under higher than expected ceilings.

A screeching car alarm meant we shunned the sunshine

To see what is on offer.

Excellent opening hours (noon to 11pm, every day) meant there was nothing to fear on a Monday afternoon. The weekend saw the start of their Oktoberfest celebrations - with Lowenbrau and Paulaner both on tap. £5.50 to £6 seemed fair value.

Especially when semi-banked

Onwards to a more traditional pub - The White Lion. A 200 year old boozer, which had the feel of a pub to hide in. Like a smuggler's pub on the Cornish coast, there's little natural daylight and plenty of nooks and crannies to hold up in.

Rather close to the road - hence the close up

The twin reasons were are on the Wirral - hiding under the table

The Twitter algorithm was working perfectly, as I saw their tweet about making into the bible on my feed. They showed the half dozen cask on offer - a couple from Neptune and then some rather unusual beers. I initially tried for a Peerless Knee-Buckler. The barman unhappy with the cloudy result and offering to change it before I said a word.

A first couple of Rev James reserve..... a 5.5% Best Bitter that could have been brewed just for me.

Two miles to walk back along the Wirral Way.

File under "Perfect Late Afternoon".

06/10/25 - Back to the Dungeon

White Star

Walking from our (temporary) home today. As with most walks on the Wirral, this incorporates the Wirral Way - a disused 12 mile railway line.

Arriving at Thurstaston Station

Once again, we leave at the Dungeon - taking time today to find the cave that is so well marked on the Komoot App but not on the OS Map.

Already has explorers

A high level bridle path, strewn with Geocaches, leads us past Forget Me Not Burial fields for today's unexpected discovery. St Bartholomew's Church at Thurstaston. 

Full body burials a speciality

The ALC tells me most of what I need to know - the Norman Origins, the isolated tower of a former church and the grave of Thomas Henry Ismay, the founder of the White Star Line.

St Bartholomew’s Church in Thurstaston stands on a site where Christian worship has likely taken place since at least the 12th century, with the earliest record of a church dating to around 1125. The medieval building, long described as small and dark, was replaced in 1824 by a plain stone structure, whose tower still survives in the churchyard today. The present church, designed by the eminent Gothic Revival architect J. Loughborough Pearson, was consecrated in 1886 and built of warm red sandstone with a distinctive spire rising above the Wirral landscape. Nearby, the churchyard holds a number of historic features, including an ancient font, a 17th-century coffin lid, and the ornate tomb of Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line and one of the parish’s most notable residents. His memory is also marked by the lychgate, erected in 1900 by his family in his honour.

The freestanding tower

The current church

A drop down across Thurstaston Common, which will be explored in more depth tomorrow.

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Walks into Cheshire History, Walk 15

Geocaches - 8 

05/10/25 - The Boathouse, Parkgate

The First GBG 2026 Tick

Storm Amy is in its final throes, so it's back to the walking. This is a near replica walk to one from the Ship. That went south, this went north. The experience, near identical.

In planning for post walk refreshment, we park at the Boathouse. We could just as easily parked at "the old baths". One of two open-air sea swimming pools, used to put the backbone in the children from the 1920s and 1930s.

We head inland at Gayton, for a lovely sunken path for the return.

The Path Out....

The Path Home

A simple walk that would probably be unworthy of blogging, apart from one claim to fame. The first Good Beer Guide Tick of the 2026 edition is the Boathouse.

The Boathouse - c1850

The pub has the claim of being from 1850. This is the second building on site, with the first storm damaged beyond repair in 1881. Apparently, waves can lap up at the windows during high tides - which seems incredible. First reopened as a cafe and then converted into a pub, it is now owned by Hydes.

We arrive at 11:58, with a queue already formed. Is this a promising sign, when we are after a Sunday lunch? It's popular, but will there be a table free?

Stingo looked very interesting, but it was Lowry

We are allowed to use one of the later reserved tables, provided we are out in 90 minutes. The shared Sunday Lunch platter for two made this a real test.

I could bring you a photo, but to be honest, it makes me look a bit "Man vs. Food".

Walk Details

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 10

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in Merseyside, Walk 27

03/10/25 - Heswell Fields

Beating Storm Amy

The first named storm on the season. The rain starts at 11am, so we head out for the shortest of our planned walks. I have a feeling that tomorrow's may be unplanned and even shorter.

This has the usual motifs experienced so far - out, through a boat's graveyard on the English Coast Path. Over the Wirral Way and then to the intriguingly named "The Dungeon".

Marooned Boats

English Coast Path at Heswell

This way to the Dungeon

The Dungeon, near Heswall and Thurstaston on the Wirral, is a steep wooded ravine carved into sandstone and siltstone. It is notable as the only Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the Wirral, designated for its geological importance. The site exposes rocks of the Triassic Tarporley Siltstone Formation and Wilmslow Sandstone, showing features such as ripple bedding and salt pseudomorphs.

Mrs M at the Dungeon Waterfall

High ground, which includes the wooded area of Heswell Vale to take us back to the car park. Here, the cafe called Yot awaits. I could have brought you a photo of Victoria Sponge and flat whites but Amy has started howling. Mrs M's barnet is - by her own words - unsuitable for the Internet.

You'll have to make do with the Dee Estuary and Wales

Walk Details

Distance - 4 Miles

Geocaches - 4

Walk Inspiration - 40 Walks In Cheshire

02/10/25 - The Ship at Parkgate

Water and air, rather than solid ground

When reviewing the OS Map, it's hard to imagine what the English Coast Path is going to be like at Parkgate on the Wirral.

Our Path's for today - with Two Big Blue Cups of Joy

The Dee estuary opens out to an expansive sweep of saltmarsh and mud. In the distance, the Welsh mountains. Despite the warning, there are some people out in the marshes. For us, it's a case of "stay on the path, boys".

Big skies on the Dee 

Death by rifle... or mud

I'm unsure I have ever seen an area as saturated with Geocaches. Which makes it a shame that one of the dogs in our care starts barking the minute you stop walking. The numbers for a seven-mile walk could have been off the scale. Instead, I manage about 1 in 3. When the little bugger is ahead.

We turn off and head inland to Ness. Some good public footpaths but really, if the truth is told, there's nothing much to see. The Wheatsheaf forlornly boarded up with a printed sign on the door saying "Apologies, we will not be opening for the foreseeable future".

So it's a good job that Parkgate has everything we need.

Chip Shop - packed with pensioners. Rich pensioners. The chips are £4.80.

Ice Cream Shops - one famous, one offering ice-creams that are "home-made". Mrs M spends longer than you would think on Tripadvisor for someone who wants a cornet.

Pubs - An immediate choice of the Red Lion or the Ship. As I have never been in a bad pub called the Ship, that wins today's custom.

Ship Ahoy!

There's been a long history of pubs at this location, before the current building was constructed in the Victorian era. At one point, in the 1970s, it was a Trust House Forte. Remember them? They had the best loyalty scheme available for any jobbing IT professional installing Citrix MetaFrame around the UK.

The most recent review (2012) on Pubsgalore has it down as a hotel still. It's definitely a bar, and despite the sign saying Freehouse, they are having the exact same Oktoberfest as the Ring O'Bells visited yesterday. The barman knows nothing about them being part of the same group. Thank god for the Internet. Stange & Co - with 10 pubs in their stable across North Wales and the Wirral.

The Ship

A very decent Brightside Brewing Grafter bitter one of the 5 casks available. 

Walk Details

Distance - 7.5 Miles

Geocaches - 19

Walk Inspiration - Best Pub Walks in Merseyside, Walk 29

01/10/25 - West Kirby and Hilbre Island

The Tide is Low

Something a little different to kick off our week on the Wirral. A walk that I had first discounted, as it came with danger warnings. Drowning or quick sand. Take your pick.

It was only after being reassured by the owner of the two Sprockers that we are dog-sitting that this was totally safe that we headed out. As long as you go 2 hours after high tide. 

It was only when we had a post walk coffee that we were told to look at the lifeguard's Instagram page to see all the rescues conducted over the summer.

The Wirral Way - a disused railway line - looks like it will be our friend. Most of the walks encounter it at some point, leading us to the English Coast Path and around Marine Lake.

This one is Timber - showing us the English Coast Path

They are sailing

Hilbre Island can be reached on foot from the Dee Lane slipway at West Kirby, crossing the sands past Little Eye and Middle Eye to the main island, about 2 miles each way. The walk should only be attempted on a falling tide, starting no later than three hours after high water, with at least four hours allowed on the island before the return, as the causeway is covered at high tide.

Certainly an unusual walk..... as you head out to what is shown at first as the sea on the OS Map and then runs out of map on the 1:25K Explorer 266.

Things are usually OK, if there are other people there

From Little Hilbre to Big Hilbre

Of all the facilities available, the composting toilet was the most useful

First impressions of West Kirby are very good. There are two Good Beer Guide pubs available. They both open midday. In the week. This is the kind of customer service that I am now applauding. Needing food, we will save them for another day. There is plenty of cafe choice - most in a row on the road behind the front prom.

But it wouldn't be a Mappiman blog without a pint. The route home takes us through a park and over Caldy Hill, passing the Ring O'Bells en route.

You can Ring O'Bells, Ring O'Bells

A much extended, mock tudor pub dating from 1810. To be honest, it looked a bit of a gastro horror-show. But I warmed to it when they had an Oktoberfest promotion. Currywurst, bratwurst but most importantly Hofbrau Oktoberfest on draught. £7.10 a pint, but a wonderful 2 pint stein available for £14.20.

Walk Details

Distance - 8 Miles

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - Two Komoot walks combined.