Walking the Chester City Walls: The Complete Circuit

Chester's walls are the reason a lot of people put the city on their list in the first place, and they are one of the few genuinely free, genuinely complete things left to do in an English city centre. The circuit runs just under two miles, 2.95 kilometres if you want the precise figure, and it follows more or less the line the Roman Twentieth Legion laid out when they fortified Deva Victrix around 79 AD. Anglo-Saxons and Normans rebuilt and extended it afterward, and the city has kept it walkable ever since. At an easy pace the full loop takes something like 45 minutes to an hour, longer if you stop to read every information board.

Where to start

There is no correct starting point, since the wall is a loop with access at every gate, but the Eastgate Clock is the obvious one: it sits directly above the original Roman gate, it is a five-minute walk from the railway station's direction into town, and it puts the Rows and the Cathedral within immediate reach afterward. From Eastgate, heading south takes you past Newgate and directly above the Roman Amphitheatre, the largest yet excavated in Britain, visible from the wall below without needing to go down and pay for anything, because there is nothing to pay: entry to the amphitheatre itself is free too.

The southern and western stretch

Past the amphitheatre the wall runs down toward the Groves, Chester's riverside promenade, past the Wishing Steps and Recorder's Steps, both worth a look even if you do not take them, before reaching Bridgegate above the Old Dee Bridge. This is the most scenic quarter of the whole circuit, with the Dee below and Grosvenor Park across the water. From Bridgegate the wall turns north and runs along a stretch that overlooks Chester Racecourse, the Roodee, so if a meeting happens to be on you get a free grandstand view without a ticket. Keep going and you reach the Water Tower and Bonewaldesthorne's Tower at the northwest corner, the most photographed towers on the circuit and a reasonable point to break for a coffee if you are not doing the loop in one go.

The northern stretch back to Eastgate

North of the towers, the wall runs above the Shropshire Union Canal to Northgate, close to the Bus Interchange, then continues east to King Charles Tower, also known as Phoenix Tower, at the northeast corner, said locally to be where Charles I watched his troops defeated at the Battle of Rowton Moor in 1645, though that particular claim is folklore repeated often enough that it is worth treating as a good story rather than a confirmed fact. From there it is a short final stretch back down to Eastgate to close the loop.

Steps, surfaces and access

The walk is not step-free. Several stretches keep their original steep steps and uneven historic paving, and while ramps have been added at Newgate, Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, Kaleyard Gate and the Castle to improve access, the circuit as a whole is not wheelchair accessible. If mobility is a concern, the eastern stretch from Eastgate down past the amphitheatre is the flattest and most manageable section, and it is also the one closest to the Cathedral and the Rows if you want to combine a shorter walk with the rest of the centre.

When to go

Early morning is genuinely the best time, both for the light on the sandstone and because the wall gets busy with coach parties and shoppers moving through the centre by mid-morning. Autumn and winter afternoons, when the sun sits low, give the most dramatic light on the stone, and the wall stays open and lit at all times of year, so an evening lap after dinner is a perfectly reasonable way to see the towers without the daytime crowds.