Chester Racecourse holds the curious distinction of being a racecourse where ships once docked. In Roman times most of this ground lay under the River Dee, forming a busy harbour that took in olive oil and, reportedly, flamingo tongues from across the empire. The river eventually retreated, leaving a meadow the Saxons called the Roodee, or “island of the cross”.

Racing began here in 1539, making it England’s oldest racecourse still in use, as well as its shortest and flattest. It has hosted stranger things than horses, too: Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West show here in 1903.

VoiceMap’s self-guided audio tours view the Roodee from the city walls and use it to trace Chester’s changing shoreline, from Roman port to medieval nunnery lands. One tour returns to 1914, when the course became an army camp and donated horses stood tethered to the railings, waiting to be branded for war.