For me, nothing can beat York City Walls in terms of being the best city walls in England. However, the Chester Walls do come closest.

I hadn’t really appreciated previously how much of these walls remains intact – you can join the walls alongside the racecourse and then complete a sort of three-quarters circuit of the city, ending up near the Roman Amphitheatre.

The route of the walls is quite interesting – in addition to seeing into gardens etc the walls also wind in between shops and pass through the main shopping area – you get to walk under the famous Eastgate clock as part of this walk. At one point as you’re walking along you also become aware that you’re suddenly about 20 metres above the canal and it’s quite a precipitous looking drop – it’s not immediately apparent how you gain that much height so quickly, but you do.

There are a few interesting looking little bars and shops that seem to open directly onto the walls dotted around – possibly a nice way to spend an afternoon.

The walls themselves are relatively flat, but they are old, so the ground is uneven. There are also steps. I would say only tackle a wall walk if you’re relatively mobile and it hasn’t been raining. If you start and don’t feel you can finish, there are plenty of places where you can give up and do something else – little flights of steps to different streets etc.

The walls are best explored just after dawn, when they are quiet and most serene – allow about an hour to do so and then maybe have some breakfast. I suspect the experience isn’t as pleasant when they are full of people.