Category: News

How to explore the newest part of the King Charles III England Coast Path near Liverpool

While the focus was on Eurovision this week, a little bit of history was made on another part of Merseyside.

The opening of the Merseyside section of the King Charles III England Coast Path follows the recent renaming of the path for the Coronation.

It leads from Southport [Southport prom pictured above via i Newspaper] via Crosby and Formby to the Liverpool waterfront.

It also adds to plans throughout the year to celebrate the Year of the Coast as designated by the National Coastal Tourism Academy.

The highlight of the new section follows the lesser-known coast to the north of Liverpool, an undiscovered landscape of beaches, dunes and heathland supporting many wildlife habitats.

Several sections are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest with rare examples of flora and fauna.

John Corbett, a Liverpool Blue Badge Tourist Guide, based in Crosby, said:

“This is an area of big sky and statement sunsets.”

“I regularly walk this section of coast and love the long-distance views, looking as far as the Lake District and back towards Snowdonia on clear days, plus watching the ships coming in.”

Read the full story via the i Newspaper: Merseyside’s new King Charles III England Coast Path opens up.

Bookings open for Dark Chester special tours for the Chester Heritage Festival

Dark Chester / Chester Heritage Festival specials — bookings are now open

I’ll be leading a couple of special walking tours of Chester next month for the Chester Heritage Festival (CHF).

Bookings are now open and spaces are limited.

Book Dark Chester: Spooks & Stories (June 17) at https://lnkd.in/eEajidex.

Book Dark Chester: Ales & Tales (June 24) at https://lnkd.in/erPbc9NN.

So, join me in June and let’s take a walk on the dark side.

For details of other Chester Heritage Festival (CHF) events, then the full listing here.

Dark Chester highlights dark tourism trend in Cheshire Life magazine feature

Dark Chester was featured in the April issue of Cheshire Life magazine [pictured above].

I wrote a feature about  the rise of dark tourism in Chester and how my tour taps into this trend to explore the darker side of our history.

Here’s an extract:

Dark Chester is a storytelling walking tour of the city, which traces a journey through all periods of Chester history from the Romans to The Beatles.

It highlights some of our lesser-known stories, such as tales of Viking Chester and the Anglo-Saxon fortification of Chester as a burh, a defended settlement.

It also spotlights some of the lesser-known figures from our history, such as Aethelflaed, the daughter of Alfred the Great, and St Werburgh, whose relics were said to be paraded around the city walls during raids by the Welsh.

The focus is dark history. By exploring the dark side, the tour reflects the growing interest in dark tourism, or visits to places associated with dark tales.

As Dr Philip Stone of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research, explains in his book, 111 Dark Places in England that You Shouldn’t Miss:

“Dark tourism allows us to sightsee in the mansions of the dead, while having deference to those deceased.”

Read more at Cheshire Life magazine.

Liked this? Then read Take a walk on the dark side for the BGTG blog.

How to spend a weekend in football-loving Wrexham like a true A-list Hollywood star

Image: Telegraph Travel

Amazing scenes in Wrexham this week.

They inspired this feature about the Hollywood glamour of the formerly workaday town in Northeast Wales for Telegraph Travel.

Here’s a taster of the article.

The streets of the former industrial town in Northeast Wales were packed last night with fans from across the world cheering on the open-top bus parade from the Racecourse ground, home of Wrexham AFC.

It marked the Wrexham team securing promotion back to the English Football League after 15 years and consisted of three buses, featuring the men’s side and women’s side, which also clinched promotion.

The club’s Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney [pictured above] completed the line-up, having bought the club in 2020 and transformed its fortunes.

It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood epic for the third oldest professional football club in the world, dating from 1864, and compensates for Wrexham narrowly losing out to Bradford to host the UK City of Culture 2025 last year.

Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism, says:

“You can’t put a value on the recent exposure. Wrexham is the gateway to North Wales and the whole world now wants to know the story of Wrexham and the region.”

Read the full feature via Telegraph Travel  The A-lister guide to Wrexham