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Mersey Coastline Walks

Exit Aigburth Station and turn left down Mersey Road. Continue past the junctions with Alma Road and Marlcroft Drive then take the next on your left. Turn into the old stone-walled entrance and follow the path that winds through the wood. As you enter the open grassed area the path swings to your left towards some new properties. Here you'll pass by a children's playground. Turn right by anelectricity sub-station onto Marlcroft Drive. Continue to the end and turn right onto Riversdale Road towards the Mersey. As the road ends you should see the 'Sitting Bull' installation by the artist and sculptor Dhruva Mistry. This red bull originally featured at the 1984 Liverpool Garden Festival.

Continue down to the promenade. To your left you can see the docks at Garston just beyond the houses of Cressington, but you need to turn right here. Walk along the promenade. A little further on you'll see a children's recreation area. Turn right, there's often an ice cream van here. Walk up, past the recreation area and bear left. Cross the road and enter Otterspool Park. If you follow the path, this leads through the wooded area. You can walk back through the open parkland area to join the main paths.

Follow the path which curves round to the right in a semicircle then turn sharp right up the bank. There are great views here of the Mersey and Wirral beyond. Turn right onto Otterspool Drive. Pass the Otters Pool pub continuing along Otterspool Drive. Before you reach the roundabout (at the junction with Jericho Lane and Riverside Drive) cross the road, and turn left down the first path towards the river. (This is the path by the sandstone pillars that runs almost at right angles to the road.) Walk down the slope and turn left on to the promenade. Otterspool Promenade was completed in 1950 and was created from the disposal of Mersey Tunnel spoil and household waste! Further up river you'll probably see planes taking off from Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Walk along the promenade, continue ahead until you reach a junction on your left by some laurel hedges, and a stone wall with a memorial plaque. Turn left here and walk up the slope. Pass by the stone boulders near the roundabout and join Mersey Road. Walk up the road and over the bridge to return to Aigburth Station.

More information about Otterspool

Liverpool - Maritime Mercantile City World Heritage Site is a "supreme example of a commercial port at the time of Britain's greatest global significance." Liverpool's outstanding universal value, which justifies its inscription onto UNESCO's World Heritage list, is that it played a crucial role in world history.

The outstanding buildings and docks associated with this area are an invaluable part of the world's cultural heritage. The World Heritage Site extends along the waterfront from Wapping Dock in the South to the northern end of the historic Dock Wall beyond Stanley Dock and extends inland from the Pier Head to Lime Street Station and Duke Street.As well as the pre-1850 docks and monumental dockside warehouses, it includes one of the finest and most complete Victorian commercial districts and also encompasses the cultural quarter around William Brown Street, dominated by the magnificent St George's Hall - one of the finest neo classical buildings in the world.

More information about Liverpool World Heritage Site

ALBERT DOCK - OTTERSPOOL - AIGBURTH - SEFTON PARK - LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE

Visit one of the best parks in the area and see plenty of Liverpool's famous sights. Ride Time: Allow about 2 hours, including stops. Start and Finish: Albert Dock, Liverpool City Centre. Traffic: Most of the route, apart from a few short sections, is along dedicated cycle tracks, paths and side streets. Telephone the Traveline on 0871 200 22 33 for bus and train times.

From Albert Dock (nearest station - city centre stations) follow the paved area of the wharf, passing Liverpool's new Arena and Convention Centre. Continue past the HM Customs and Excise building along the riverside. Further on you'll pass the Britannia pub and then later, the Otters Pool pub. Just past here, turn left off the riverside path at a right-angled junction, this track has street lights and leads to a landscaped terrace, go left around the terrace and turn left. Cross the road then take the second track to the right (first track has a rough surface, second one is tarmac), into the park and past the old café. Exit the park by dismounting and taking the pavement to the right, cross Jericho Lane at the traffic signals then walk through the pedestrian underpass under Aigburth Road. On exiting the underpass bear left and then take the road straight across, you will need to walk your bicycle to the far side of the island before cycling again. Left at the crossroads and then right at the 'T' junction onto Mossley Hill Drive. Turn left to cross the 'Iron Bridge'.

Take the first left, past the Palm House. This magnificent three tiered, Victorian Grade II listed glasshouse, built in 1896, is the centrepiece of the park. Turn left after the barrier and cycle to the café. Leave the café on NCN56 (National Cycle Network) towards the monument (looks like a large needle). Go straight over the junction at the monument, this is a wide junction with vague road markings. It is probably best traversed by turning briefly left, manoeuvre to the centre and then turning right. Go through the park gates, then half left at the next signalled junction, following the signs for NCN56, this route connects the waterfront to the Loop Line, follow the signs through Princes Park. At the exit go around the gates and rejoin the road to cross the junction of Belvedere Road and Devonshire Road onto Devonshire Road West, if there is much traffic use the waiting area in the centre of the road to complete the crossing in two sections.

Straight over Upper Warwick Street at the next crossroads, through the library car park to cross Upper Parliament Street using the Toucan crossing, stay on the short section of cycleway into Hope Street. The main entrance to the Anglican Cathedral is on Cathedral Gate, off Upper Duke Street opposite Roscoe Street. The foundation stone was laid in 1904 and it took over 70 years to complete. It is the second biggest church in the world (only St. Peters in Rome is bigger) and was designed in a neo-Gothic style by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Go left at the crossroads onto Upper Duke Street, straight over two sets of traffic lights onto Duke Street.

At the end of Duke Street turn left at the traffic lights and then immediately left onto Paradise Street. At the end of Paradise Street turn left onto Park Lane, then fork right at the roundabout onto Jamaica Street. Take the first right onto Blundell Street, straight over the traffic lights onto Queens Wharf and return to your starting point.

Start: Pier Head, Liverpool or Seacombe Mersey Ferries terminal Finish: Meols Merseyrail Station Ride Time: Allow 3 hours Distance: 9 miles Traffic: Traffic free except for the last short section to Meols Merseyrail Station.

PLACES TO VISIT
New Brighton

The ride from Seacombe offers a great perspective across the Mersey to Liverpool's historic waterfront. There are particularly fine views of the Pier Head and the Liver Building. In New Brighton, you will pass by Fort Perch Rock. The Fort dates from the late 1820s and was built to protect shipping during times of war although it saw little or no action. New Brighton itself was established as a seaside town from 1830 by James Atherton who hoped that it would come to outrank the resort of Brighton on the south coast. In Victorian times there was even a tower higher than the one at Blackpool. The restoration of the promenades make them a joy to walk and cycle along. There are several places to take refreshment en route.

The North Wirral Coastal Park

The coast is known for its wildlife, especially wading birds which visit during their migration - oystercatcher, dunlin, redshank and turnstone near to the water's edge for example. In prehistoric times the land was heavily forested and it is sometimes possible on rare occasions, at very low tide, to see the scant remains of a submerged forest at Dove Point, dating from the Stone Age.

From the Coastal Path you'll see Leasowe Lighthouse where the North Wirral Coastal Park rangers are based. It was built in 1763 as one of several beacons used to guide ships safely into the Mersey estuary. Along the coast is Meols, a name derived from the Norse word for "sand hills". Until recent times it has always looked to the sea for its wealth.