Delamere Forest and Chester

Thursday 20th – Monday 24th March 2025

We are staying on the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Delamere Forest, as part of the CCC Photo Group meeting being held there. Our thanks to Ian and Sue for stewarding the meet and making everyone feel welcome.

Thursday 20th – Friday 21 March

After setting up on site and enjoying a welcoming brew c/o Sue, we went for a walk around the forest, taking a path just next to the site. The Forest is full of good well signposted paths for walking and cycling and the recent good weather ensured it was dry underfoot.

There are several small lakes around the forest and one larger one, Blakemere Moss which has many Black Headed Gulls in occupation. Most lakes seem to be only shallow and have trees growing or partially submerged in them.

The following morning, Friday, we took a bike ride around the area, exploring further. The area is very popular and can get busy at weekends, but not too bad on a Friday. The paths are mostly wide and are quite extensive, many leading on across the surrounding countryside beyond the park area.

The park has several attractions with tree-top platforms and walkways in one part and a Gruffalo orienteering route in another. There are also many mountain bike trails, some of which require a good level of fitness and ability.

There is also a new activity, Disc-Golf, which involves throwing a Frisbee at targets in the woodland, placed along a route. You can also hire a Segway electric wheeled platform, though most of these attractions are seasonal and were closed when we visited.

Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March 2025

On both Saturday and Sunday, we took the train to Chester. Saturday’s trip there, was in the company of Jeeves, Michelle and their Cockapoo, Layla.

I have always loved the city of Chester with its old buildings and double-tiered shopping passageways, known as “Rows”, that overlook the high street on each side near the cross.

Ancient buildings are everywhere and many of them are occupied by high-end retailers or pubs. This area of the city centre gets very busy.

Some of the buildings are very ornate:

Some of the building fronts feature carved scenes from the Bible:

There are so many fine old buildings, I cannot hope to show them all. Chester also has a fine medieval cathedral:

The wooden carvings around the quire stalls, are remarkable:

In the back corner of the nave, there is a medieval court-room:

We also saw some street musicians who were not without talent:

When we revisited on Sunday, we explored a little further. The city dates back to Roman times and boasts an amphitheatre alongside St John the Baptist church, which was designated as a Collegiate Cathedral until the Reformation in the early 16th century. After it was mostly demolished, it was rebuilt in the 18th century, but much of the original structure remains as ruins around the current church building.

The medieval oak coffin, inserted into the wall, bears the legend: “Dust to dust”.

Nearby, over the River Dee, is Queens Park Bridge. We wandered downstream towards the pleasure-boat moorings:

Once more, that blooming gull is following me in the hope that I might have a cheese baguette it could steal from me:

Chester also has a canal which served the city in Victorian times. Our meanderings took us down the towpath where we found a large old industrial building which we discovered had been restored and converted into a pub and restaurant.

A very pleasant drink was enjoyed there before we headed back for the train.

Monday 24th March

After saying goodbye to Jeeves and Michelle (and Layla of course), we explored Delamere Forest further on our bikes.

We rode up to Old Pale Hill, where a viewpoint had been created, showing the distances and directions of various landmarks on brass plaques:

Sadly we could not see any of them, due to a the hazy conditions.

That all. TTFN.