Take a walk on the wild side with our ‘walking beats’ playlist

Explore your local green spaces with these uplifting walking beats, powered by nature and Liverpool’s artistic talent.

Over the course of the Coronavirus lockdown, we’ve really missed exploring the green spaces of Lancashire, the Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester on our group walks, discussing the views, learning about the history of an area, or spotting wildlife we might otherwise have missed when another walker pointed something out. We had to cancel our upcoming events, and it looks like it will be a while before we can get back to a non-socially-distanced group walk with an (optional) non-socially-distanced trip to the pub at the end. To this end, we’ve been thinking about how we can still feel together on our walks even if we’re not all walking around in a group. We’ve come up with a new idea – “You’ll never walk alone” if you’ve got our #walkingbeats playlist to keep you company!

Developed to combine the uplifting effects of music with the wellbeing boost of being in nature, our #walkingbeatsliverpool playlist features a range of tracks, from classics, Liverpool chart-toppers, to up-and-coming local bands. This playlist has been constructed to keep you company along the route of our Rimrose Valley Country Park and Sefton Coast walking route, but if you’re not local to Liverpool, feel free to listen to it wherever you are!

If you do walk our Rimrose Valley route, tag your photo @cprelancs #walkingbeatsliverpool on Instagram – we’d love to see your photos.

And when you are out and about in nature listening to our playlist, don’t forget to take off the headphones from time to time and listen to the sounds of nature too…

Walk route

This route is accessible at both ends by public transport, starting at Seaforth and Litherland station and ending at Hightown station. However, because of limitations on public transport at the moment, you can also see a map showing car parks around the Rimrose Valley Country Park here:

Google Map showing Rimrose Valley Country Park paths, car parks, entrances etc

There are also a number of car parks (both free and paid) along the Crosby coast.

https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/crosby_merseyside

Explore Rimrose Valley

Enter the Rimrose Valley Country Park through the Southern Entrance if arriving by train. There are a number of paths winding through the Country Park that you can explore, from a Froggy Meadow to Fullwood Marsh. While you’re listening, keep looking out for the gems of wildlife that can be spotted in Rimrose Valley, from kingfishers and newts to hedgehogs and red squirrels! Our suggested route is to walk the length of the park along the perimeter beside the canal, and then walk back along the path which goes through the centre of the park, but if you’re interested in looking for a specific bird, check out this page to find out where and when you should go in order to see it:

http://www.rimrosevalleyfriends.org/galleries/birds/peter-fearon-ringer/

Local bands recommended by the Rimrose Valley Friends facebook fans include The Reads, The Shipbuilders and Irene and the Disappointments (as well – of course – as The Beatles) – listen out for them on our playlist!

Rimrose Valley is currently under threat: Highways England have been allocated the money to build a new road cutting in half the whole of this iconic urban country park. CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester supports local campaigners who want to keep this vital local green space for the benefit of all in the community.

Crosby Coastal Park

Once you have had your fill of the country park, exit through the St. Mary’s Road exit where you will see a sign pointing to the Crosby Coastal Park. There you’ll need to walk along St. Mary’s Road, turn left onto Bramhall Road, Cross the A565 at the pedestrian crossing, and continue along Great Georges Road down towards the Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre.

The fantastic Sefton coast running from Waterloo to Formby Point (owned by the National Trust), to Ainsdale beach with its fantastic dunes, to Southport and onto the desolate sea marshes at Crossens also provides open space from the city in order to run, cycle, walk dogs or just spend time with nature.

Once you reach the Lakeside Adventure Centre, head towards the beach via the path between the boating lake and marine lake. Admire the view of North Wales as you walk north towards Hightown. As well as the eerie iron statues which make up Anthony Gormley’s ‘Another place’ installation, you will walk through Hightown’s dunes and meadows, where you can spot a submerged forest at low tide, where Neolithic residents left a trackway of branches across what was then a marsh, possibly for fishing or sailing.

It’s a vital spot for coastal birds such as the Bar-Tailed Godwit, Dunlin or Red Knot in the winter, and if you’re fortunate you might spot a Natterjack Toad or Sand Lizard.

Our playlist will accompany you for a 3 1/2 hour walk – longer if you take our advice and turn off the music from time to time to listen to the birdsong, hum of bees, or crash of the waves!

Listen to local bands!

Featuring Liverpool classics, we’re delighted to also be able to include music from the following bands who are graduates of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts:

Chinatown Slalom (Just Love)
Georgie Weston (Live This Life Alone)
Skinner’s Lane (Every Time)
1G3, NYLAN (Tell Me What You’re Thinking)
Spilt Milk Society (Orange)
SUB BLUE, KC Clarke (Take A MInute Supreme)
OKEY, Erika Norwich (Can U See Me)
Øyvind Weiseth (Gløm Ho)
Ian Janco (Need A Little Time)
VILDE (Hands)
Aleks Grey (Stay)

Please contact us with any feedback! We would love to see your photos from the walk too.