How to score points on the walk
Every side quest needs rules. Here they are.
Six stops in two halves, in one big loop. Half one is the Romans and a park. Half two is the walls, the most complete city walls in Britain, and the Rows. It starts at the Roman Gardens by the Newgate and ends on the walls just above them. It's about 2 miles, it's free, and it fills a morning or an afternoon.
Play solo, or teens against grown ups. Stones, statues and your own squad only, never strangers. Tick the box beside each challenge you do, and your score adds itself up at the end. The highest score picks pudding.
Spot it+1Find it. Point. Claim it.
Snap it+2Photo or it didn't happen.
Guess it+1Guess first, then tap to check.
Bonus+3Harder to find.
Legendary+5The rarest find on the walk. There's only one.
Wall streak+5Score at least one point at a stop and you lay a brick. Lay a brick at all six stops to build the whole wall. Miss a stop and your wall has a gap.
Stop 1: Roman toilets and Britain's biggest arena
Half one. A Roman toilet was a long stone bench full of holes, with no walls, so soldiers sat side by side and chatted.
The Roman Gardens, just outside the Newgate, have real columns and a hypocaust, the Romans' underfloor heating. Next door, the Roman Amphitheatre is the biggest in Britain, and it's free every day in daylight. Only about two fifths has been dug up. The rest is still under the buildings around you.
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The stubby pillars in the Roman Gardens come from a hypocaust. They held up a floor, and hot air from a furnace flowed underneath to heat the room above. Heated floors, yes. Loo roll, no. Romans had odd priorities.
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A sponge on a stick. Rinsed, then left for the next person. Shared. Every day.
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Somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000, probably there to watch gladiators.
The hypocaust in the Roman Gardens
Stop 2: Grosvenor Park's giants and a no show statue
Grosvenor Park sits just outside the walls. In 1869, Chester unveiled a giant marble statue here of the man who gave the city the park.
Two stone giants from Norse myth live here too. Ymir is the frost giant, and Surtr is the fire giant who sets the world alight. Marvel fans, you know him. Ymir was carved to be touched, so go ahead.
On set days a miniature railway runs through the park. It's meant for little kids. It's also brilliant.
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The park was a gift from the Second Marquess of Westminster. His statue is about 3.6 metres tall and was said to be the largest sculpture in Britain carved from a single block of marble. It was unveiled in 1869.
In Norse myth, the whole world was built from the body of a giant called Ymir. Surtr is the fire giant who sets the whole world alight at the end of time.
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The Marquess himself. He was too ill, so Chester had the party without him.
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The sky. His blood became the sea and his bones the mountains.
Ice cream, a side quest of its own
Stop 3: the Eastgate Clock, Chester's selfie spot
Half two starts on the walls. Up the Roman Garden steps by the Newgate, a short walk north, and there it is: said to be the most photographed clock in England after Big Ben. No pressure.
It went up in 1899 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The arch underneath is 130 years older, and the walk goes right over the top.
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The arch was rebuilt in 1768, with the walkway carried over the top, so the walls walk crosses Eastgate Street on it.
Up on the walls, the clock is close enough to count the curls in its ironwork. Down below, Eastgate Street is lined with the Rows, which come later in the walk.
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Every single week. Imagine that being your whole job.
The walls lead straight to it
Stop 4: the north walls, a king and a dungeon
In 1645, King Charles I is said to have watched his army lose a battle from a tower here. Worst seat in the house.
Chester was then under siege for months, and people inside the walls starved. Morgan's Mount, a little stone platform, is where a cannon crew fired back.
Then comes the Northgate, once the city prison. Just down Northgate Street, Chester Cells runs tours of the Victorian police cells under the Town Hall. It's paid entry, so it's one to talk your grown ups into.
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Chester's walls began as a Roman army fort in the AD 70s, and they're the most complete city walls in Britain.
The king's side lost the Civil War, and Chester was besieged for months. By the end, people inside these walls were starving.
In 1779 the prison reformer John Howard visited the Northgate and was horrified by the underground cell for serious criminals. The city knocked the old gate down in 1810 and built the arch that stands now. On the far side, the canal runs along the bottom of a deep rock cutting.
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18. No window, no light, and air only through two lead pipes. It was knocked down in 1810.
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Stone from the Roman amphitheatre. You're walking on old seats.
King Charles Tower on the walls
Stop 5: the Water Tower, plague cabins and a racecourse
The Water Tower was built standing in the River Dee, so guards could tax every passing ship. Then the river silted up and wandered off. After the Civil War, people with the plague lived in cabins underneath. Lovely.
Further on, the walls pass the Roodee racecourse, where football was banned in 1533 for being too violent. Then down the steps at the Watergate for the last stop.
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The Water Tower was built in 1322. A short wall links it to Bonewaldesthorne's Tower, named after an officer who helped drive the Danes out of Chester more than a thousand years ago.
The Roodee's Shrove Tuesday football match got so violent that the city banned it in 1533. In 1539 horse racing took over. Legend says the mayor of the day, Henry Gee, is why horses are called gee gees.
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£100. The river is now a 200 yard walk away, so not great value.
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Myth. It's one of Britain's best known fake laws.
The Roodee, from the walls
Stop 6: the Rows and a grinning cat
Down Watergate Street, the shopping goes double decker. Shops on top of shops, found nowhere else in the world. They keep you dry, which in Chester is useful.
On Bridge Street, Sick to Death is a museum of plague, pox and surgery without anaesthetic. Gory, funny and paid entry.
On summer days at noon, from Tuesday to Saturday (never on race days), the Town Crier rings a bell at the Cross and shouts the news. Stand at the front and you might get welcomed by name, or put in the stocks.
At the bottom of Bridge Street, the Bridgegate takes you back up onto the walls. Above the Groves, a tiny stone Cheshire Cat grins out of the wall, like the one in Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice, was born in Cheshire. A few minutes on, you're back at the Roman Garden steps where you started.
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The Rows are covered walkways along the first floor of the main streets, with a second line of shops sitting on top of the shops at street level. You won't find them anywhere else in the world.
Proclamations have been made at the Cross since the Middle Ages. Long before phones, this was how Chester heard the news.
Nobody knows exactly where the Cheshire Cat's grin comes from. One theory says it's the county's dairy farms, where the cats got all the cream.
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More than 700 years. They were first written about in 1293.
Find the real one on the walls
Add up your score, then home for pudding
If you're staying at Enjoy the Pause, a holiday home on a quiet terrace inside the walls, the Roman Garden steps are a 2 minute walk from your front door.
Back at the house, the sofa is the official place to argue about who really won. The superfast Wi-Fi sends your score to the family group chat before the kettle has boiled. The winner picks pudding, as promised.
Your score: 0 out of 58.
Wall streak: 0 of 6 bricks laid.
Under 15:a Roman sentry, asleep on duty.
15 to 29:a medieval mayor. Smug, but fair.
30 to 44:the Town Crier. Loud about it.
45 to 58:a Chester legend. Someone should build you a statue. Turn up to the unveiling.
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Quick answers for grown ups.
What is there for teenagers to do in Chester?
Chester's best teenage day out is on foot: the city walls, the Roman Amphitheatre, Grosvenor Park and the Rows, with gross history all the way round. Sick to Death, the medicine museum on Bridge Street, and Chester Cells, the Victorian police cells under the Town Hall, are the gory indoor picks, and Chester Zoo is the big day out, a short bus ride away.
How long does it take to walk Chester's city walls?
The full circuit is about 2 miles, so it takes around an hour at a steady pace without stopping. With stops for photos, the Roman Gardens, the amphitheatre and Grosvenor Park, this walk fills a morning or an afternoon. The walls are free to walk and open all year.
Are the Roman Amphitheatre and the Roman Gardens free?
Yes, both are free. English Heritage looks after the Roman Amphitheatre, which is open every day in daylight, and the Roman Gardens sit beside it, just outside the Newgate. Sick to Death on Bridge Street charges for entry, with cheaper tickets for children.
Is Grosvenor Park inside Chester's city walls?
No. Grosvenor Park is just outside the walls on the east side of the city, a short walk past the Newgate and the Roman Amphitheatre. It has lawns, gardens, a playground and a miniature railway that runs on set days.
