Whixall Walks – 5. Tilstock to Hollinwood

Walk directions

1. Start

   Turn right out of the car park at Tilstock Church, take left hand fork and turn left at T-junction then cross the road towards the Horseshoes pub.

2. Step 2

   Take the road to the right of the pub, signposted to Hollinwood, passing the curiously named lane, Dig Lake, on your left. Continue on the road for approx. half a mile until you reach Maltkiln Cottages on your right, beside the private driveway to The Park. After the Cottages, take the next road on your right, signposted Alkington. At the first gateway on your left, pause to enjoy the view over to Hawkstone and the Lord Hill monument.

3. Step 3

   Proceed along the Alkington road until you reach a gate and a footpath on your left. Go through the gate and follow the Whixall walks signs over fields and through two more gates, keeping the hedge on your left. Go through another two gates and at the field corner follow the hedge as it bends right. From here you can enjoy views of the Welsh Hills. Where the hedge peters out, follow the Whixall Walks sign through another gate and skirt round Massey House Farm. Follow the driveway down to the road and turn left into Hollinwood.

4. Step 4

   Continue straight on past the green and the former red brick chapel (ignoring the turn off on the right), soon passing the Whixall village sign on your right. Keep on the road for several hundred metres until you reach a footpath on your right. (If you reach Fair View, you've gone too far!)

5. Step 5

   Take the footpath across the field until you reach the hedge, turn left (ignoring the footpath sign pointing through the hedge) keeping the hedge to your right. Follow the field edge until you see another footpath sign and a bridge. Cross the bridge, and turn left along the field hedge. In summer there are wild roses in the hedgerow and butterflies in the grass. At the end of the field, cross the stile and continue along the field edge with the hedge on your left. Cross the stile in the corner of this field and turn right onto a lane.

6. Step 6

   After just a few metres, take the footpath over a stile to your left, into a field. Continue along the field path over one more stile keeping beside the left hand hedge. You will see a beautiful sycamore tree ahead of you in the second field. Cross the stile to the left of this tree and turn right into a lane. Take the first left down a track. Halfway along the track at the bottom of the slope, turn right over a stile and keep left alongside a small paddock. Cross the stile ahead of you, and go across the next field, keeping the pond to your left (the path can be boggy here).

7. Step 7

   Cross the stile in the right hand corner of the field and follow the hedgerow to your left until you reach another stile. Cross this and keep to the right hand side of the field, alongside the hedge.

8. Step 8

   Two thirds along the field, cross the stile on your right. Turn left, following the hedge on your left, to the field corner. Keep left and cross the stile in the hedge, before crossing the bridge. Turn right and keep to the edge of the field. When you meet a track, turn left, keeping the wire fence to your right, until you come to a gate. Go through the gate into Dig Lake. Follow this lane to the road, where you turn right and head back to the Horseshoes and the church car park.