Knowsley

Walk Details:
Date: 17/04/2005
Total ascent: 0m/ 0ft
Total distance walked: 0 miles
Walk difficulty: 0/10
Enjoyment rating: 4/10
Best bits: It’s in a safari park – what more can you ask for!
Worst bits: No walking – felt like an American bagger! Also having to pay £9.50 entrance fee to get to the top – is Knowsley the most expensive top?
Walkers: Anth, Jim
Car Parking: None required

Top details:
Name: Hag Brow
County top number: 58 of 207
Grid reference: SJ 46231 94610 View Map
Height above sea level: 97m/ 318ft
How nice was the top? 3.5/10
Views: 0.5/10
Description/Notes: The highest point in the Unitary Authority of Knowsley is an indeterminate point within Knowsley Safari Park.

The Walk:

There are actually two points in Knowsley that are 97 metres high. The first is a trig point within the grounds of Knowsley Hall – unfortunately we were unable to gain access to the private grounds. We were therefore forced to go for the other top, not far away, within a safari park carved out of former lands of Knowsley Hall.

Obviously a top in a safari park was going to present its own special problems – namely that it might be guarded by fierce animals! The safari park opened at 10am, and we reached it at 10.05am – despite this, there must have been more than a dozen cars already going round ahead of us.

It was weird being back in a safari park – neither of us had been in one since we were kids. Knowsley Safari Park isn’t that big, as evidenced by the admission price which is just half that at some of the bigger parks such as Wooburn and Longleat. This was just as well, for we didn’t want to spend too much time going around – we had county tops to bag! Despite the time issue, we were both secretly looking forward to seeing the animals.

The road round the park was three lanes wide – this was just as well, given that we needed to pass all the other cars to get to the top as fast as possible. There was the potential to take short cuts and avoid some of the cages, but we still wanted to get our moneys’ worth and see all the animals. The highlight for me was the lions – lazy though they are there’s still a thrill in being in the same cage as these magnificent beasts. The baboons, always famed in safari parks for the destruction they wreak on vehicles, were in no mood for causing trouble today – they just looked cold. They were all huddled cutely together with their arms around each other for warmth, apart from one enterprising individual who was lying sprawled out on a car bonnet, soaking up the warmth of the engine.

With the two main attractions out of the way, we wanted to whiz through the rest of the park and get to the county top, which was near the end of the safari route. First of all though, we had to contend with a herd of deer, who strode purposefully into the road in front of us, and then ambled along in front of us at snails pace for the full length of their cage, ensuring that at all times all three lanes were blocked. All the cars that we’d overtaking formed up in a long queue in behind us.

Hag Brow is a slight rise running into the penultimate enclosure of the safari ride, and the road runs over the top of it. It’s an enclosure of mixed grazing animals, so we felt safe to stop the car, open the doors and put our feet on the ground to claim the top. The GPS was reading 97m, but the actual spot height on the OS map was a couple of hundred metres away. We felt, however, happy enough to count this top as bagged on this basis – as the nearest animals were a small herd of malevolent-looking buffalo there was no way we were leaving the car!

It had taken us the best part of an hour to get round the park, and we were getting a bit behind on our county top bagging record attempt. We therefore headed out of the safari trail (the first car to do so today by some margin!), scorned the few other meagre attractions the park had to offer and continued on our quest.