Around Kelsall

Saturday 10 February 2018 5 miles

Jane, Tracey, Donna and Hilary

The weather started wet and the forecast was for rain to fall all day. Going up into the hills was not going to be a good idea. I looked for other walks, but it was one that I found just before I left the house that we decided to do. Hilary thought the weather might be a bit better to the west, so the Kelsall walk seemed like the best choice. 

We put on our waterproofs straight away. There were other walkers parked up and getting ready to walk, so rain doesn't put everyone off. Over the years we have been really lucky with the weather, so we are not really weather hardened!

It was cool to start with. Under the trees in Delamere Forest was really cool. Once we left the woods we were a bit warmer. 

There were some lovely looking sandstone cottages on Yeld Lane that had just been renovated. The quite small Yeld Lane Farm Cottage was £275,000 and Yeld Lane Farm was empty and like a lovely conversion was £595,000, the only thing was that the building was right next to the road, the garden was for parking as well. There was also a brick new build as well.

The Walk took us through Kelsall with lots of houses to look at. We went down the main road, through some alleyways and then worked our way back onto the hillside. 

The views over the countryside towards Chester are lovely. We walked down through little Switzerland and passed the variety of houses. We walked up the road, but once we joined the path to go to Delamere Forest it was mud, mud, mud all the way. A group of walkers were coming the other way the only thing to do was to hang on to the fence and stand out of the way because it was very slippy underfoot.

It was warm walking under the trees through Delamere Forest. Again the paths were muddy, I walked on the path but the others walked through the trees.

There wasn't really anywhere to stop for lunch as everywhere was so wet. We did manage to find a few rocks under the trees to sit on not too far from the car park. We could see the countryside to each side as the path goes along a ridge but we were also near the road, so we were aware of the traffic noise. We soon cooled down as we were sitting still.

We went to Tarporley Garden Centre although there wasn't a lot of time between lunch and 
cake. Tracey and I did manage tea and some apple cake with blackcurrant jam in the middle.

Kelsall - Countryside Ranger Walk

Saturday 19 April 6.5 miles

Organised walk - about 25 people

A grey day with a cold wind, but the rain stayed away.

We didn't have to think about the walk very much as we were being lead by others. It was interesting to have things pointed out to us as we walked along because they are aspects of the landscape that you wouldn't know about unless you were a local historian.

The Roman Road, Watling Street,ran through this area with a fork going off it to Middlewich for the salt. Kelsborrow Castle and Eddisbury Castle were hill forts. going to the top of Eddisbury Hill you could see an almost 360 degree view. It was a bit misty but the view was still great.

We walked from the forest past Kelsborrow Castle down to Little Switzerland. We even had a bit of a hill to walk up - there was a cyclist going up and down obviously doing some hill training in Cheshire!!

Had lunch in the forest at the Urchins Kitchen a glacial outflow had carved a passage through the rock. The organisers thought it would be sheltered there but the cold wind was coming from the wrong direction. We didn't stop for lunch too long.

Kelsall Hill Farm was hosting a horse event, so there were lots of horse boxes and we could hear someone speaking on the tannoy.

I enjoyed the walk, being out in the countryside.