This ride is only open to members of the Wirral Cycling Group.  If you are an experienced rider who has ridden with other cycling groups and would like to join us on a ride, then please get in touch with us via the <Contact Form> so we can make arrangements.  If you have not ridden with a cycling group before, and would like to find out what riding with our group is like, then please book onto one of our monthly rides for newcomers.
You must not join a ride if you or anyone in your household is experiencing any of the Covid-19 symptoms
or if you have been advised to self-isolate

(C) Hunts Cross to Woolston along the Mersey

11:00 Wednesday September 28 2022

Current Participants: 8 space(s) available

    This is a Grade C ride of 42 miles starting at Hunts Cross Station at 11:00 am.  The ride leader, John Hampson, will be at the start at 10:45.

    The route goes along towpaths and river banks with mostly good surfaces, but with a few uneven bits on gravel.  The paths are though reasonably wide and the route is passable on a road bike, although we would recommend using a hybrid or mountain bike if you have one.  We will walk along the difficult bit for about 50 metres.  On the other hand, because it follows canals and rivers, the route is very flat with no significant hills.

    Starting from outside Hunts Cross station at 11:00, the ride is expected to take about five and a half hours including stops for breaks and lunch.

    The route goes out through Halewood and Halebank, across the old Runcorn Bridge and then along the towpath of the Bridgewater Canal (a good surface).  At Sandymoor, it leaves the canal and goes (on the appropriate sandy paths) to Moore.  We will take our first snack break there after 13 miles about 12:15. Then cross the Manchester Ship Canal and along a gravel road (with puddles if it is wet) to the River Mersey at Warrington.

    We then begin a tour of the Mersey Cuts (a series of canals that were dug to bypass the meanderings of the ancient River Mersey around Warrington and so shorten journey times); plus a ride alongside the Manchester Ship Canal which was built “straight” through the area in 1894 and made all the previous cuts and canals around Warrington redundant; which is why we can ride our bikes along them today.  We will stop for a second quick break after twenty four miles to check out the huge Latchford locks on the Manchester Ship Canal.

    The return trip will be along the St Helens Canal (another good, wide gravel surface) from Warrington to Widnes with lunch at the West Bank Boat Club on Spike Island around 2:30 pm after 33 miles (there is seating outside the boat club by the canal for anyone bringing their own sandwiches).

    Then back alongside the River Mersey to Pickerings Pasture (there is a long descent down wide, wooden steps at Ditton Bank) and back through Hale Village, around Speke to Hunts Cross.  Merseyrail trains back to Liverpool Central for the Wirral leave Hunts Cross run every fifteen minutes.

    Here is the route on Komoot: Hunts Cross to Woolston along the Mersey



    Bookings no longer allowed on this date.