Chester's Walls and Water

1 From Frodsham Street, turn right into Foregate Street then under the clock into Eastgate Street and along to High Cross. Turn right on to Northgate Street. Where it opens out turn left through a gap into Hamilton Place.

2 Return to Northgate Street and continue to the grand Town Hall of 1869. Turn right under the 14th-century Abbey Gate into Georgian Abbey Square. In the corner there's an entrance to the cathedral. Leave the square by Abbey Street and go up on to the walls. Turn left past the Deanery Field, to the Phoenix or King Charles Tower, where Charles I watched his army's heavy defeat at the Battle of Rowton Moor. Follow the walls round, overlooking the deep cutting of the Shropshire Union Canal. As you reach Northgate Bridge, on the right is the Bluecoat School, founded in 1717 to counter 'the growth of vice and debauchery in Chester.' Continue to another tower, Morgan's Mount. Descend steps on the left, loop round through the arch and descend to canal level. To your right is the cutting, carved in solid sandstone. Go left along the tow path to Northgate Locks. Below the locks the canal squeezes under the railway bridge, then the path forks.

3 Follow the tow path round under another bridge to Northgate Basin. Just across the water is Telford's warehouse, with its arched loading dock. Return to the fork, go up to railings then turn left up steps and back to the walls. Turn right to Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, which guarded the harbour until the river changed its course.

4 Continue down City Walls Road; the top of the wall is level with the road for a stretch. Pass the Queen's School then take the higher level, over Watergate Bridge. Just beyond this there's a good view of Chester Racecourse, said to be Britain's first. The course occupies an area called the Roodee, once a tidal pool, but silted up by medieval times.

5 Cross busy Grosvenor Road at the traffic lights to the continuation of the walls below Chester Castle. The medieval castle was replaced by a series of Greek revival buildings in the 1790s. When the walls sink to road level, cross to a path overlooking the river. Cross the Dee Bridge, with its pioneering hydro-electric station from 1913. Turn left along the far bank, past ugly modern flats and a restored waterwheel, to Queen's Park. Go up steps and recross the river by Queen's Park Bridge. It was built in 1923 and bounces gently as you walk across.

6 Climb steps above the end of the bridge and 20yds (18m) further on turn left through a gate to the ruins of St John's Church, Chester's first cathedral. Continue along the side of the 19th-century church and round its west front to emerge alongside the remains of the Roman amphitheatre. Just beyond, on the left, are the Roman Gardens. Go under the arch of Newgate and turn left immediately on Park Street, past an unforgivable multi-storey car park to the graceful almshouses known as Nine Houses (there used to be more). Go up a ramp on to the walls and go left over Newgate.

7 Continue along the walls past the glass-cased remains of Thimbleby's Tower and on to the 18th-century Eastgate, surmounted by the elaborate clock erected to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Just beyond, descend steps on the right to complete the circuit.