You don't need £300 boots for Liverpool

Every walk on this site can be done in trainers. All of them. The highest point in the city is Everton Brow and you can take a pram up it. So before anyone asks what boots we recommend: the ones you already own.

The outdoor industry has spent thirty years convincing people that walking requires equipment. For the Lakes, fair enough. For a prom that was engineered flat by Victorians, you need footwear with a sole and opinions of its own about puddles, and that’s the whole spec.

What actually matters here is wind. The Mersey funnels it, the coast doubles it, and there is no walk on this site where “windproof” isn’t worth more than “waterproof”. A £20 windproof shell does more for your afternoon than any boot ever made. Gloves from October. That’s the kit list.

The rain: you will get rained on. Not might — will. The local forecast changes its mind four times a day, and the only reliable strategy is to accept the rain as a condition of the ground, like the tide. Walks look better wet anyway. The sandstone goes the colour it’s supposed to be.