Free range in the garden

hello!
 I am new to the forum and to chicken keeping so please be gentle. I am looking for advice on letting my chicken free range.
 At the moment I only have one chicken, a large cockrel and would like to see him free range in my garden. The only problem is, I am terrified he will escape. At the moment he is in a smallish house/run which is hard to clean out since its only about 3 ft tall and I have to crawl around inside. Our garden isnt massive but large enough, on two levels. Its perhaps about 15ft on the top level and the same again on the bottom level.
 The top level is concreated and the bottom level is soil, we plan to add terf at some point (we only just moved in) The walls are around 4-5ft tall and Im worried this is not enough to let him free in. We have gardens connected to us on all sides.
 Obviously, I would shut him in the house at night.
 So, would it be better to just get a huge run, say 5ft tall so I could clean it easier or let him free in the garden? Right now, the garden is a mess so we would clean it first but there are plenty of weeds growing for him to nibble on! I can get pictures of our garden if anyone wanted to see. I will be getting ladies as soon as I decide to let them free/bigger house, whichever you adivse.
 Thanks!  

yep the more photo's the better we love em are your neighbours ok with the cock crowing :shock:  from your description i would build a bigger run and add some girlies, and you could let them in the garden under supervision for a while

Id just like to say that Im a happy bunny. Despite losing one of their frien ds yesterday, my girls have laid 4 eggs between them today.
Im hoping that the excellent weather over here today has spurred them on.

Hi there and welcome to the madhouse -oops henhouse!  
Glad you are getting some girls for him -he will be so happy!! I love watching my boys watching out for their hens and offering them little titbits they find. How many hens do you intend to get? That will have a large bearing on their run size. I would also make sure they are a similar size as large cockerels can be a little rough and  inadvertently cause damage to smaller hens. :shock:
Henhouse should ideally be 1 foot square per bird with 9inches each for perches. Run should be  a minimum 1 metre sq each bird.
If building a larger run as their main area they could then free range your garden when you are around to keep an eye on them and rest assured they will always come back to roost!
A covered run is best this ensures foxy cant get in. Use welded mesh this is strong and will prevent animals chewing through it. Bury the mesh about a foot deep to prevent foxes digging underneath or some people place paving slabs by the edge of the run.
Finally there are breeds more docile than others which might be good as they dont tend to fly off! I have bantams that I have had to clip wings whereas my larger birds would be hard pushed to clear a foot high! I am sure  you will get loads more advice, hope this helps!!  

I hardly know a thing being very new to poultry and this site has been a Godsend ( or should that be an equal Goddess send ) for support advice and practical solutions and what I would say is that if the size of the run is an issue and coupled with the awkward size of the henhouse to clean out, it would be worth considering raising the henhouse a couple of feet so that

A. There is extra scratching ground made under the coop

B  You will not have to get on your hands and knees to get in and clean it.

Just a thought *S*