2.3 miles from us · CH66 1SS
Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve
Rivacre Road, Ellesmere Port
Woodland and meadow either side of a brook, five minutes off junction 7 — the closest nature reserve to us on the Cheshire side of the boundary.
The council calls Rivacre Valley "a green oasis of woodland and meadows close to Ellesmere Port", which is a fair description of somewhere that sits within sight of the M53 and does not feel like it. The car park is on Rivacre Road, just off junction 7, and from the house it is a little over two miles.
It is a valley, so there is a network of paths running through woodland and out into meadow, and the council is honest that some of them are steep. That suits a dog who wants a proper walk rather than a lap of a flat field, and it is the reason we tend to take younger dogs here and leave the stiff-hipped ones on the Wirral Way.
Rivacre Brook runs the length of it and kingfishers hunt along it, so it is worth keeping half an eye on the water. In spring the woodland floor goes over to celandines, wood anemones and then bluebells; later in the year the meadows are the part people come for, and they are a good place to sit while a dog gets on with sniffing.
There is an orienteering course laid out across the reserve and a visitor centre that carries the events programme, though the council publishes neither opening times nor toilets for the site. Wheelchair access is signposted, with the caveat that the anti-motorcycle gates can be too narrow for a larger chair.
Worth knowing
- The council's dog control order does not name Rivacre Valley as a place dogs must be on the lead — that list is Grosvenor Park, cemeteries and crematoria gardens, and bowling greens — but an authorised officer can ask for any dog to be put on one, and dogs are excluded from fully enclosed children's play areas. You have to carry something to pick up with, not just intend to.
- The council publishes no opening times and no toilets for this site, so plan as though there are none. It is the one thing we would ring the ranger about before making a special trip.
- Some of the paths are steep, and the anti-motorcycle gates are narrow — worth knowing if you are pushing a chair or a buggy as well as holding a lead.
Details from Cheshire West and Chester Council — Rivacre Valley Local Nature Reserve. Also from Cheshire West and Chester Council — dog control Public Spaces Protection Order.
Other walks nearby
Twelve miles of old railway line that starts on our doorstep. Flat, sheltered, and you can do as much or as little of it as the dog has in them.
Mature woodland on the edge of the Mersey, with the estuary opening up through the trees. Closest proper woodland walk to the house.
Fifty-four hectares of ancient woodland in a river valley — the best of the local walks for a dog that wants to put its nose down and work.
Twenty-eight hectares of old landfill turned over to grassland and surfaced paths, with a short climb to a view over the Mersey to the Liverpool waterfront.
The old sea front at Parkgate, with the whole Dee estuary open in front of it. Flat walking, enormous skies, and more birds than most dogs know what to do with.
A shade under thirty-seven hectares of woodland, grass and water on the west side of the Wirral, with two surfaced waymarked trails straight from the car park and a cafe at the end of them. The longest trip of any walk we list.