This walk from the Pier Head to Otterspool is about 4½ miles (7½ km) in length and takes in the magnificent Pier Head buildings and the Albert Dock and other southern dock areas. After this it follows the secluded Mersey Way along the side of the river and finishes in the equally secluded Otterspool Park. This section is best at high high tides when you have the water close by your side all the way to Otterspool. The route is unfortunately not circular, but there are frequent buses along Aigburth Road back to the Bus Station behind the Albert Dock. The second half can be omitted by catching a train back into town at Brunswick station, giving a 2 mile (3 km) tour of the waterfront. The way is all on hard surfaces, so wear something comfortable on your feet..

The relevant Ordnance Survey 1:25000 Explorer map is No. 275. For further information on the locations visited, click on the images. See also ...

Start at the Pier Head and take in the splendour of the Royal Liver Building [1], the Cunard Building [2] and the Port of Liverpool Building [3]. This area has recently been completely (and in my view very successfully) reconstructed and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal extension to the Albert dock now runs elegantly through. There are various statues and memorials around here too, such as the one of Edward VII.

This is, of course, a good place to watch the famous Mersey ferries come and go. The ferry terminal and the new Pier Head building are here. In front of you as you head south is the new Museum of Liverpool building [4]. Here, because construction work is still under way, you have to make a detour via the Strand for the time being and rejoin the route at the Albert Dock Piermasters House [5].

The Piermaster's House [5] stands at the end of the Canning Half-Tide Dock, which marks the location of the mouth of the former tidal creek known as the Pool (from which Liverpool partly derives its name). In front of you are the lock gates to the Albert Dock [6] with its monumental warehouses.

Head down between the Albert Dock warehouses and the river. As you leave the warehouse area, the flashy new Echo Arena and Conference Centre [7] looms into view. Keep heading south, past the suitably imposing HM Customs and Excise offices [8] and the large Queen's Dock [9] to a little inlet, the South Ferry Basin, completed in 1823 for ferries and fishermen and unaltered since. Here you have a fine view over the marina in Coburg Dock [10]. A little further on is the Brunswick River Entrance, now the main lock gate serving the marina, where there is a hydraulic lift bridge to allow yachts to pass through at high tide into Brunswick Dock [11]. Go past the next block of waterfront buildings and Brunswick station [12] is just up on the left, should you want it.

To continue the walk, keep along the waterfront. Just after Riverside Drive joins from the left is the useful, modern Britannia Inn [13], where you can sit outside in the sun in a superb location or, even better, watch a raging winter storm at high tide from the comfort of inside. Keep going along a long, splendidly isolated section by a grassy embankment with no buildings at all (the old Garden Festival site).

Eventually paths start coming down to the river. Look out for a red buoy number G6 [14] in the river. After this, ignore the first little path on the left and take the next broad path that comes out at the Otters Pool pub [15]. Go right at the pub and when you see a large grassy hollow on the left [16] (the original Otters' Pool), take the path branching off to the left to enter Otterspool Park. Soon after take the path that doubles back around the left side of the hollow and leads by the left of a derelict café. You enter a nice, quiet, leafy valley where the little River Jordan used to flow in cascades until it was dammed to make the lake in Sefton Park. Pass under a railway bridge [17] and emerge eventually to the bustle of Aigburth Road [18] for the bus back into town.