7 Must Visit Spots In Cheshire

Chester is Cheshire’s county town and the shining jewel in its ancient crown. Founded way back in 79 AD as a Roman fortress under Emperor Vespasian and privilege to many a makeover since - most famously in the Tudor era which gives the city its signature black-and-white look - a walk along the walls, which surround the city centre completely unbroken, is the perfect way to take in and experience almost 2,000 years of history in forty minutes or less. Highlights of your self-guided tour will include a meander under the iconic Eastgate Clock (England’s second most photographed clock after Big Ben!), some spectacular views of the River Dee, and a stroll past Chester Cathedral, one of the country’s most impressive Gothic monuments.

If you want to dive into some slightly more recent local history, Quarry Bank Mill is the perfect spot! Originally built as one of the UK’s most reputed cotton mills in 1784, the site now operates as an open museum to give visitors a fascinating snapshot into working life during England’s Industrial Revolution. The Mill’s main museum includes some of the real machines that workers would have used way back in the eighteenth century, while a ticket also grants visitors access to the surrounding Styal Village Estate to learn more about workers’ day-to-day lives and the mill’s gardens which spread four-hundred acres across the banks of the River Boulin and include beautiful English countryside and rolling wild woodlands.

For a glimpse into a more glamorous past, explore Knutsford’s Tatton Park, one of the UK’s most complete historic estates. A world suspended in time, there are almost too many attractions here to list: the Old Tudor Hall, originally built in the fifteenth century and which represents the first seeds of the site; the Neo-Classical Tatton Hall which, since its erection in the seventeenth century, has played host to both British and foreign royalty and whose halls are lined with master paintings by the likes of Canaletto, Poussin, and Van Dyck; the hall’s working farm, where visitors will can rare breeds of farm animal such as Tamworth pigs and Red Poll cows; the over 2,000 acres of deer park; and the extensive gardens, overflowing with hidden monuments and rare plant life. Tatton Park is almost an entire county in itself!

If you want to explore the stunning countryside and pastoral scenes that Cheshire has to offer, there’s no better way to do it than by trekking the Sandstone Trail, a 34-mile walk through the heart of Cheshire that has regularly been voted one of the country’s favourite hikes. The walk is a reliquary of English gems, from spectacular wildlife to breathtaking panoramas to ancient churches and haunted castle ruins. Among our favourite spots along the walk is Delamere Forest, a lakeside fir-forest paradise nestled among a peninsula of picture-perfect villages, and the Roman Bridges which climb over a babbling offshoot of the River Gowy and are surrounded by verdant woodland vistas.

To see one of Cheshire’s modern curiosities, visit Jodrell Bank Observatory, the historic astrophysics research centre seemingly randomly planted in the Cheshire wilderness to give the pastoral landscapes a scifi, extraterrestrial edge. Built in 1945 to help researchers at the University of Manchester watch cosmic rays, the complex was granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2019 in recognition of its undeniable contributions to the study of astronomy and science which, according to the UNESCO website, have “led to radical changes in [our] understanding of the universe.” Visitors to Jodrell Bank are able to explore the unique facility or, if they come around July, can attend the annual Bluedot Music Festival held around the observatory grounds for a sonic experience like no other. Past festival headliners include Bjork, New Order, Kraftwerk, and Metronomy.

Another of Cheshire’s scifi oddities is Hack Green Nuclear Bunker, built by the British government at the height of the Cold War with plans to be made the seat of government in England’s north if nuclear war broke out. It, of course, never did, and now the site serves as a sort of museum-memorial to the uncertainty and instability of life during the Cold War where visitors can peruse one of the most expansive collections of decommissioned nuclear weapons and Cold War memorabilia in the world, get guided tours of the underground bunker, and even try the ‘simulator experience’ which mimics the conditions of the bunker under nuclear attack to gives guests the opportunity to experience cataclysmic apocalypse first-hand. How cheery!

We’ll end this article on a high note, something a bit more wholesome and family friendly, perhaps. One of the UK’s largest zoos and regularly ranked among the best in the world (TripAdvisor named it at number 3!), it is home to over 500 species of animals across 130 acres of land, from lions and elephants to orangutans to penguins. At the cutting edge of global conservation, over half of the species that call Chester Zoo home are on International UNion for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species, with the zoo regularly making headlines for its routine breeding and release of animals teetering on the brink of extinction. Chester Zoo may be a local attraction and a jewel in Cheshire’s diverse crown, but it is a must-visit spot with global significance.