Nessho three

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

A decent enough route through a lovely part of the Wirral, but not without its problems.

The section from Neston is nice enough; a well-paved and well-provisioned with shops, followed by good footpaths through fields to the old riverside. The terrain and often muddy nature of these paths do make it only suitable for foot traffic only, unfortunately.

The path through Little Neston is along quiet unpaved roads, which are safe enough to use and often used by walkers. Once we get to Ness, however, it is all unpaved roads, uphill, into Burton.

Burton is a lovely little village, but the road through it, and away, is more unpaved roads, hedges on each side, proving to be blind corners in places. Once we leave the road and take the footpaths through Puddington, pavements only then appear, shortly before we once again head across fields towards Shotwick.

The fields and tracks in and around Shotwick can often be muddy, so do take care! Once we slip over the unnoticed border into Wales, we're in a paved industrial estate, before joining a tarmacced path that takes us to Hawarden Bridge and Shotton beyond.

The path takes an unnecessary kink around a field before the bridge (much easier to stay on the main path following the line of the old railway), but this route properly shows the means of which to navigate the confusing nature of the two Shotton stations to reach the main road beyond.

I'd recommend NESSHO Three as a much better guide to the route, but also recommend NESSHO Two for those wishing to avoid road walking.

The route is well described in detail by the previous reviewer Mary Oz. Easy rail connection between the start and end points. Second half of the walk was much more interesting than the first half, with historic halls and farmhouses in the 3 villages and open views across the Dee to the Welsh hills.

You can walk directly alongside the railway from the northbound (west side) platform of the high-level station next to the start of the route. This path continues over the low-level railway line, and descends a flight of stairs onto the low-level station. You then need to cross under the high-level line to reach the cycle track that goes through a narrow cycle barrier, then cross the River Dee on the east side of the railway bridge. From here you need to do a short double-back towards the river then go through a gate and down a staircase to reach the path that heads north-east.
A grassy footpath leads between an embankment and a drainage channel and onto the Millennium Greenway cycle track. (It would have been easier to stay on the Greenway from Hawarden Bridge Station.) Unfortunately, part of the Greenway was temporarily closed and we had to follow a diversion through the industrial estate. However, subsequent internet research suggests the cycle track here is normally fine, and I'm therefore happy to verify it.
The route followed an underpass beneath the busy roundabout, to lead onto a track to Shotwick. The route was much more rural from now on and passed through three very pretty villages – Shotwick, Puddington and Burton. However, some of the field crossings were very muddy. There was a pleasant café (called Gift Café) on the way into Puddington in the middle of the route. There is a small amount of quiet road walking, and there are views across the expanse of the Dee Estuary into North Wales. Burton had a bus stop library!
From Burton, a quiet road, between the RSPB site and Ness Gardens, is followed down to the edge of the marshes, to join the cycle-track route of NesSho Two. It then follows the marshes to reach The Harp pub and eventually turns inland, via a stone stile and through a field of horses, to lead into Neston.
This was a very pleasant route with a few slight tricky bits, lovely villages, beautiful marshes and great views. Quick warning though – the marshes flood at the high spring tides!!!.

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