A Burton and Parkgate Round 6th February 2019

Heading inland from the Old Quay.

Building bridges by numbers.

On an bridge arch over the Neston Cutting.

Wood sculpture At our lunch spot.

Eurasian curlew in the field behind our lunch spot.

One of five Little egrets in a cattle field.

A delightful section of the path (on the Sandstone bedrock) from Windle hill towards Ness.

This must be the only gateway of its kind in existence, but perhaps you know better!

Snowdrops next to the path from Ness to Orchard House.

Back at the car and looking towards Parkgate and the way we had set off four hours ago.

Time for a celebratory drink after completing the first walk after a few weeks enforced breaks.

Walk stats: Distance: 8.0 miles. Climb: 215'.

Time: 4 hours 2 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.6 m.p.h. (2.8 m.p.h.) on my newest GPS). Overall walk average; 2.0 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Celia and David S.

Overall this was a good day for walking, dry, cool, but not too cold and very little wind and we even finished the walk in warm sunshine.

 We set off from our Station Road start along Denhall Lane towards Denhall Quay and on along the estuary towards Neston/Parkgate. As usual the section behind the reed beds was pretty muddy, but I have seen it much worse.

 Parkgate was pleasantly quiet and it was good to note that the PC were open. It is always a bonus  to find an PC open on a route.

 We were disappointed not to see any evidence of the reasonably high tide due about 12-10, but it was still too early for lunch, so we headed for the Wirral Way and the start of our return journey. e eventually arrived at the Lees Lane location of a delightful wood sculpture, where we were able to sit on sections of tree trunks / stumps to have our lunch.

 As we had lunch we could hear the sound of Eurasian curlews calling from the field behind us, but nearer to us we had a European robin singing, but alas it getting any reward for doing so.

 After lunch it was only a three mile stroll back to the start, but we still had to negotiate the busy Mill Lane leading into Ness from the A41.

 Along the track on the East side of Ness, there were  good splashes of Snowdrops in flower, the best we have seen this year - Spring has started!

 We decided to miss out on the delights of path finding through Burton Wood and headed down Denhall Lane back to the start.

 Birds seen or heard today include: Jackdaw, Grey heron, Mallard, European robin, Herring gull, Black headed gull, Lesser black back gull, Little egret, Eurasian curlew, Common blackbird, Pied wagtail, Dunnock, House sparrow, Goldfinch and Common kestrel.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a very pleasant and enjoyable walk and headed for a celebratory drink of Holt's Bitter at the Harp Inn at Little Neston, a local hostelry now open all day from 1200 and offering four real ales - always worth supporting.