On Tuesday I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine, wrapped myself up like the Michelin Man, and went on an Iron Age hillfort hunt – Maiden Castle on the National Trust’s Bickerton Hill, to be precise.  The hillfort is, as they often are, rather easier to get to grips with from the air and in plans and illustrations, but it was still really good to see it on the ground.  I have written up Maiden Castle on a separate post here.  The real joy of the day were the deep blue skies and the slanting late autumn sunshine as it cut through the spectrum of reds, copper-oranges and yellows, and put a great golden spotlight on the bright, emerald green of the Cheshire plain below.  Utterly stunning.

The walk leads from the car park up to the ridge that overlooks most dramatically across the west Cheshire plain towards the Clwydian Range, with views too across east Cheshire.  I walked up from the Goldford Lane car park, a gentle slope across red sandy soil and sandstone slabs to the ridge, and then walked first in one direction towards and beyond the hillfort, and then retraced my steps to go along the ridge in the other direction, before returning to the car.  An alternative is to do one of a number of circular walks, one of which is shown below.  Whichever route you take, it is really spectacular on a sunny autumnal day.  Visiting details at the end.

 

 

 

The hill was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1979.  Interestingly (and unfortunately) the former heathland environment underwent ecological change when cattle and sheep ceased to be  grazed on the hill during the 1950s, allowing birch, oak and endless swathes of bracken to gain a foothold, killing off the natural bilberries and heather.  Although very beautifully copper-coloured in the autumn sun, the bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, has a number of worrying ecological downsides to it, described here on the “Moorland Association” website.  Most of the silver birches and oaks are still very young, but in places the silver birch in particular forms dense clumps.  The National Trust has now initiated a project of long-term work to re-establish large areas of heathland on the hill.

 

Visiting is easy.  The hill is just south of the main Wrexham-Broxton-Nantwich road (the A534). There are two car parks, one on either side of the hill.  I used the one off Goldford Lane, which is a large free parking area, with a shallow slope uphill towards the ridge.  The What3Words location is ///device.emulating.upwardly.  The National Trust page for the site can be found at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/alderley-edge-and-cheshire-countryside/things-to-do-at-bickerton-hill#rt-visit-maiden-castle.

You can download a leaflet about the hill and the hillfort here, including what looks like an excellent walk taking in Brown Knowl, on the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge website: https://www.sandstoneridge.org.uk/lib/file-323329.pdf

The geology of the sandstone trail can also be investigated on the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge website at: https://www.sandstoneridge.org.uk/geology.html

My video from the top of the ridge: