Kelwin three

Verified Slow Way

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A good walk from the small village of Kelsall to the larger town of Winsford through some nice country, including the woods of Delamere. Terrain, inclines and some steps make this route foot-only.

From the centre of Kelsall (shop, cafe, pub, bus stops) we move straight onto unpaved roads past the church, heading gradually uphill. They are narrow and only serve the few houses on the way up the hill, so there should be little to no traffic; it was all pedestrians on the day of the review. Eventually we come to paved residential roads, and the ascent gets a bit easier.

After a couple of junctions, at a crossroads we take the route north. It heads up and over the A54 on an unpaved road and away from the urban and into the countryside. At the next junction, along another unpaved road, which becomes a track and then a sometimes muddy footpath into the woods of Delamere.

The routes follows the main path along the contours of Pale Heights before descending to a track that is only used by farm and forestry vehicles. This brings us past the visitor centre (cafe and toilets); the road now has a footpath running alongside it. Past the carparks, the footpath ducks down into some woods, before coming out onto a track heading towards the railway station. At its car park, we find another footpath that goes through woods to the road.

Crossing the road, there's another footpath, this one forming the Oakmere Way. It passes houses and a golf course, before a long section passing the sand and gravel quarries. It's a nice area, with lots of wildlife, but it can be muddy and has many dips and rises along the rolling hills of these parts.

A short unpaved road, but with wide verges, brings us to the main road, now paved, and we soon join the Whitegate Way via a flight of steps and a gate. The Way is an old railway track which is a mixture of tarmac and metalled earth and stone, and wooded along most of its embankments and cuttings. It's by far the best part of the route, and even has the option ofva café along the way.

We eventually exit the railway and descend onto a golf course that has been reclaimed by nature and locals alike. Here the route gets a bit less clear, but it's best if you take the main well-used path that runs through the old course, with a solitary house on our left. The route then suggests to join the track/unpaved road, but I found it best to continue across the course following the main footpath, and then, past the tall fences on our left, take a footpath to the right heading towards the cluster of buildings ahead.

Joining the paved road, we pass a pub and what's left of the leisure complex of the old course. We continue ahead past residential areas until we resch the crossroads and the shops at the centre of Winsford, which also has nearby bus stops.

Overall a great route through some lovely Cheshire countryside; it's only really the golf course which prevented me from giving full marks, but it's an area that's easily negotiated.

A good route using a long section of the Whitegate Way (old railway line that used to carry salt). The former Whitegate station, complete with its eye-catching sign, is a cafe. Also included part of the Oakmere Way, a lovely winding grassy bridle path. Only a short stretch of road walking. The edge of Delamere Forrest offered refreshments in the station cafe there and a large new visitor centre.
This was walked in November after a lot of rain and proved to be an excellent non-muddy route between the two Cheshire towns. A rural walk with lots of trees, very colourful in Autumn.

This route turned out to be much nicer than I was anticipating, and quite easy to follow. We walked from Winsford to Kelsall on a very wet day within a wet autumn.
The compacted earth cycle track, also used by horse riders, was quite lovely and the former station café there looked tempting. This made up most of the first half. There were stairs to exit onto the road.
The road section was not too long, the busier road had a wide verge with a tarmac path set back, the quiet road just had a narrow verge.
The bridle path from there was a well-used easy track to follow, although it was rather muddy in the weather we had. It came out close to Delamere Station, along a fenced off track just south of the private golf course access road.
Delamere Forest was busy with visitors (it was Sunday), and was very pleasant, with good facilities.
The descent into Kelsall was quiet and offered glimpses of an excellent view, but I suspect the best viewpoint would have been from a very short detour to the masts on Pale Heights just to the south west of Delamere Forest.

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