Mid Cheshire Ridge

Peckforton ridge out to the Beeston Gap

The Mid Cheshire Ridge is a range of low sandstone hills which stretch north to south through Cheshire. The ridge is discontinuous, with the hills forming two main blocks, north and south of the "Beeston Gap".

The main mass of those to the south are known as the Peckforton Hills. The larger group of hills to the north does not have a collective name.

Significant summits

Beeston Castle hill

Raw Head

The ridge attains its highest elevation at Raw Head in the Peckforton Hills, some 745 feet above sea level. Other significant summits are, from north to south:

Hill	Height (feet)	Location
Beacon Hill	492	SJ51867668 (Frodsham)
Woodhouse Hill	476	SJ50987576 (Frodsham)
Helsby Hill	459	SJ49097549 (Helsby)
Alvanley Cliff	443	SJ50947392 (Alvanley)
Birch Hill	518	SJ52117384 (Manley)
Old Pale	577	SJ54246966 (Delamere)
Eddisbury Hill	518	SJ55146946 (Delamere)
Primrosehill	518	SJ53556817 (Delamere)
High Billinge	574	SJ55386623 (Utkinton)
Luddington Hill	476	SJ56416462 (Utkinton)
The Beeston Gap
Beeston Castle Hill	509	SJ53605933 (Beeston)
Stanner Nab	656	SJ53045734 (Peckforton)
Peckforton Hill	666	SJ52945577 (Peckforton)
Burwardsley Hill	610	SJ52515560 (Burwardsley)
Bulkeley Hill	721	SJ52615530 (Bulkeley)
Bickerton Hill Raw Head	745	SJ50165352 (Bickerton / Harthill)
Bickerton Hill south top	633	SJ50045344 (Bickerton)
Maiden Castle	689	SJ49675293 (Bickerton / Duckington)

Geology

Sandstone detail

The hills are composed of a range of sandstones of Permian and Triassic age. North–south faulting is in part responsible for elevating harder-wearing strata above the general level of the Cheshire Plain. Typically the higher summits are formed from the Helsby Sandstone.

The ridge acted as something of a barrier to the passage of Irish Sea ice during the last ice age and its hills are etched with numerous glacial meltwater channels, many of which formed subglacially. Particularly spectacular examples are those at Urchin's Kitchen in Primrosehill Woods and at Holbitch Slack near Cotebrook.

Hill forts

A series of Iron Age hill forts adorn the ridge from Woodhouse Hill and Helsby Hill in the north through Eddisbury and Kelsborrow Castle to Maiden Castle in the south.

Recreation

The ridge is traversed by the popular Sandstone Trail, a middle-distance recreational route originally established by the former council between Beacon Hill and Grindley Brook on the Shropshire border but now extended into Frodsham to the north and Whitchurch to the south. Sections of the Delamere Way, Longster Trail and Eddisbury Way also explore parts of the ridge.

Numerous of the woods along the ridge have been used for orienteering competitions over the years. Horseriding is also popular in the area, as it is traversed by a number of bridleways, byways and green lanes.