Trans Pennine Trail – Mersey Gateway Bridge Crossing

The Trans Pennine Trail is a coast-to-coast route across the entire breadth of England from Southport to Hornsea. It is well signposted and a walk or cycle could use all or part of the Trail in either direction. Some sections are also suitable for horse riding. The Mersey section follows the routes of many of the areas historic transport links: the disused Timperley-Garston and Cheshire Lines railways, the Manchester Ship Canal, the Runcorn-Latchford (Black Bear) Canal, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and the St Helens Canal.Although it is now disused, the St Helens Canal used to be known as the Sankey Canal and was the first canal of the industrial revolution. It was built to transport coal to the chemical industries in Liverpool. These industries subsequently expanded and spread back along the canal to St Helens itself.

The Trans Pennine Trail is a fully waymakred, mainly traffic-free route for cyclists, walkers, runners and horse riders. It runs for 215 miles (346 km) coast-to-coast between Southport and Hornsea. Additional sections between Leeds and Chesterfield, with a spur to York and a spur to Kirkburton, bring the total distance to around 370 miles (595km) of glorious Pennine adventures.

Brilliant off road cycling