Best walks from Southport

Formby Station to Southport Station

A scenic route. A scenic, easy-to-follow coastal walk on generally well-maintained paths, leaving Formby through a golf course and pine forest and then following the Trans Pennine Trail beside sand dunes and marram grass before a roadside stretch into Southport. Mostly flat; the woods have rougher pounded-earth paths with rises and falls. Follows the Trans Pennine Trail for a section; both ends are on the same railway line, and the walk can be started from Freshfield station.

13km. Flat terrain.

There is a footbridge and gated, signalled level crossings near Formby that are not accessible to all; the path can get sandy in places.

Lunch: Coffee shops at both ends.

Documented by Slow Ways — download GPX route

Southport Station to Burscough Junction Station

A long route mixing well-paved residential roads, earthen and tarmacked footpaths, long unpaved embanked roads with no verges, field paths crossing turf fields and farmland, with stiles and little footbridges and level crossings. The final section follows a canal and drops into reedbeds. Can be split at New Lane station, which the route passes.

17km. Flat terrain.

A long, unpaved and often busy verge-less road built on embankments, including a humpback bridge over an old railway line that hides oncoming vehicles to the last minute, makes for a hair-raising and potentially dangerous section. Two level crossings with stair-stile access.

Lunch stops in burscough: the Farmer's Arms, or the Slipway.

Documented by Slow Ways — download GPX route