With our newfound summer freedoms being thrown suddenly into question by the spread of new lockdown measures across the country, we might soon be limited once again to picnics and walks in the great outdoors.

How lucky, therefore, that Frodsham marks the beginning of the Sandstone Trail, which provides a varied array of beautiful walks ranging across Cheshire.

Over the next few weeks, Frodsham Nub News will be exploring some of the different routes that this Trail has to offer.

This week's four-mile walk brings a taste of Europe to Cheshire, as you stroll down the 'Little Switzerland' valley in Willington.

Beginning and ending at The Boot Inn, this route covers road, field and woodland, with views sweeping out towards the Welsh Hills at every turn.

• Park at The Boot and follow the lane (Boothsdale) back down towards the Willington Lane. Turn left towards the village.

• Continue along the road for about a mile until you reach Willington Hall Hotel, where you should turn left to climb the hill up towards Willington Corner.

• As soon as the road begins to level off, turn left onto the Sandstone Trail, which will bring you up through a wooded footpath towards Boothsdale.

• Reaching the quiet and picturesque Tirley Lane, turn left. You will almost immediately be met with a path leading to Primrose Wood, which you might take if you fancy extending your walk.

• Turn right onto Waste Lane and follow the road round until you reach the edges of Kelsall village and a small green separating a group of houses.

If you turn sharply to the right and enter the straight downward stretch towards The Farmers Arms pub, you have gone too far!

• On the green, you will see a wooded footpath on the right-hand side, skirting along a field boundary.

Take this footpath and go through a kissing gate, which will bring you out onto a wide open field, the site of Kelsborrow Castle.

This Iron Age promontory fort, is one of seven such forts in Cheshire. Overlooking the Cheshire Plain to the South and West, and with steep slopes on either side, the site would have been well-suited to its defensive purposes.

A Mesolithic flint blade and two Neolithic polished stone axes have been found nearby, and you can still see the remains of the fort's makeshift ramparts in the undulations of the earth.

• After looking out to the Welsh Hills in the distance – and perhaps imagining our prehistoric ancestors doing the same – go through a kissing gate to enter the Little Switzerland valley.

• Follow the path down the dale, which is pleasantly uncharacteristic of Cheshire. You will eventually emerge onto a quiet lane, and reach a sign pointing towards Boothsdale in one direction, and Little Switzerland in the other.

• Turn right down into the covered footpath, which will bring you back to where you started, ready for a celebratory lunch!

Click on these links to read about our Beeston Castle and Manley Common walks.