Sefton Coastal Path Part 2 - 4.2.20


 

Walk Leader - Neil Harwood

Number on Walk - 16

Distance - 12 Miles

Weather - Very blustery all day but cloud changed to sunshine later

 

After having walked south from Southport to Freshfields a couple of weeks ago on the Sefton Coastal Path with Wendy's walk, today's route took in the second part of the walk when we walked north from the official start of the Path in Waterloo just north of Liverpool back to Freshfields.

Our starting point was Marine Cresent in Waterloo with its lovely terrace of houses and "blue plaques" on two of these. John gave us a quick talk on one of these with its Titanic connections and also revelaed that he was born in the house next door! After this quick detour we then headed to the beach, which involved climbing over a bank of sand, which had been moved by the wind and blocked the path. Unfortunately the weather was very windy and misty so the views along the coast were not at their best. But it was still a great walk up the beach taking in the many sculptures by Anthony Gormley, which populate a stretch of beach of at least two miles. There are apprently 100 of these "men" with some way out to sea and almost submerged, whilst others had been dressed but not always to preserve their modesty.

Beyond the beach at Bludellsands and the Coast Guard station there is a short section through dunes. The coastal wall here is generally constructed from bricks brought during the War, after bombing raids by the Luftwaffe in nearby Liverpool. The yachting club at Hightown provided benches with a great outlook for our mid morning break. After this the route is forced to head in land for a while as the River Alt and the Altcar Rifle Range block the way. The latter was in use today with its large red flags and the sound of many shots. It transpired that this was a place that David would earn pocket money on a Saturday morning mannning the targets for the soldiers as they practised their shooting. I real trip down memory lane today!

After a fairly boring section along the side of the Range and the railway we then headed into Formby and took lunch at the picnic tables in the Nature Reserve. By now the sun has come out and there was blue sky but that wind was still fierce and we remained well wrapped up. An harduous climb through and over the dunes brought us down on to the beach and then it was a two and a half mile walk north along the shore before picking up the Fishermans path to take us back inland through the dunes and the woods and eventually to the railway station at Freshfield. The trains are every 15 minutes or so and we only had a few minutes to wait before taking the short journey back south to Waterloo Station and a five minute walk back to the cars.

More photos can be seen here