I have just been to Lancashire and Cumbria to visit Emily in Lancaster and together do the Morecambe Bay cycle route from Barrow-in -Furness to Glasson dock. The first part of the trip was to get my cycle and panniers with my tent etc from Wareham to Lancashire courtesy of South West trains, Cross Country and Virgin. Unfortunately I hit a bad time with Virgin trains from Birmingham to Lancaster as the cycle carriage was full of luggage and refuse bags, otherwise everything was fine and Ems was at the station to meet me and guide me around the cycle paths of Lancaster and the surrounds. We intended to get the train from Lancaster to Barrow and start the ride there following Sustrans route 700. We left on Sunday getting the first train and having lunch in Barrow before finding Morrison's supermarket and the 700 towards Ulverston. The weather was fine and the only wind we got was on our backs so we wizzed along the coastal track through Roosebeck and Newbiggin without problems. We then left the coast to go inland to Gleaston where the route passes the Gleaston Watermill and cafe in time for afternoon tea. After this we had a climb and then
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| Birkrigg Stone Age Circle or Druid's Temple a little way off the cycle route. |
freewheel down to the coast at Bardsea. Here we decided to make a detour to see the Birkrigg Stone circles at the top of Appleby Hill. This meant taking the main coastal road south and then a minor road or track up a hill. At first we missed the turning (there are no signs for the circle) and realising our mistake back-tracked up a steep hill to find the stones set on the common (SD292739) with an amazing view over the coast and our forward route towards Morecambe.
The remainder of the day's ride was straight forward with the sky darkening so we decided to camp at Swarthmoor, a Quaker Hall in Ulverston. This is very close to the town but in a secluded spot in the countryside with gardens and meadows. We had the sole use of the camping meadow and access to the showers, toilets and kitchen. Unfortunately, we had rain for most of the night but both our tents held-up inspite of heavy downpours and we remained dry. After a leisurely breakfast, we set-off in the rain towards Cartmel stopping at Greenodd for a coffee brew (the cafe was closed). After this the cycleway was off-road firstly crossing the Leven Estuary and then across meadows and woodland to rejoin a minor road.
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| The off-road section after crossing the Leven Estuary. The weather had cleared and this made a nice ride. |
Soon after this we came to the highest hill of the route, High Brow Edge( about 170 m in height) which involved a lot of puffing on my part but rewarded by a gentle glide down to Cartmel and a welcome lunch as the rain started again.
Soon after this we reached Grange-over-Sands and a break in town and in the park now in the sunshine. Anyway, I took lead for a while and we immediately got lost! through missing a sign for 700 directing us along the coastal road. No matter, we soon found ourselves and made a diversion to Meathop to meet up with our intended route, just adding a few miles. Soon we reached Witherstack and the village store and a pub, "The Derby Arms" where we had a refreshment before heading over a relatively flat section to reach Levens . We had decided to change our route to make it more interesting and divert along route 70 and then route 6 to rejoin 700 at Milnthorpe. This change also enabled us to find a campsite and for Ems to check out part of route 6 that she helps Sustrans monitor. We tried to stay at a Caravan Club campsite near the River Kent but we were turned away; they did help us find a campsite near Sedgwick, "Lakeland Maze Farm Park" that did allow tents. We did an evening walk down to the village and along the disused canal (Lancaster to Kendal) that had information boards explaining the history of the area and about the bygone canal days. The canal aqueduct still dominates the village made famous in the past from it's gunpowder works that functioned until 1935.
The morning broke clear and our tents soon dried from overnight condensation. It didn't take us long to follow route 6 down the small country lanes, that were naturalising to grass tracks, into Milnthorpe.
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| Our morning stop at Milnthorpe. Here we were told that the weather was changing to give 6 weeks of sunshine! |
The route to Arnside was straightforward alongside the estuary with views of Arnside Knott to the south. This is one of the prominent hills in the area reaching 159 m and giving great views over the bay.
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| View from the pier at Arnside looking down the Lune estuary. |
From here we had a climb out of Arnside to Silverdale. We diverted to the RSPB reserve and walked around the hides to see if we could spot a Marsh Harrior. We had been here before and seen two or three of them but this time we were unlucky. Others told us they'd just seen an adult with some juveniles being harried by some crows. We did see a variety of ducks and some Herons in the water near to the hides.
From here we went on to Silverdale for some lunch and then continued onto Carnforth to find a camp at "Red Barn" on the coast near the village of Bolton le Sands.
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| View from our camping spot at "Red Barn" looking over the Bay with our cycle route in the distance. |
There are plenty of walks from the campsite along the coast in either direction. We walked north a little to find Mill Lane and then went into Bolton le Sands for dinner at an Italian restaurant, Miaitalia, for a great meal.
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| Camping field at "Red Barn" showing our tents drying in the morning sun. There is also a cafe associated with the site and some picnic tables nearby. |
In the morning it tried to rain but it soon brightened up but with a stiff breeze near the shore. This pushed us onto Morecambe where we stopped for refreshments at "The View Cafe" known for it's vintage music, and this gave us a chance to take in the coast and hills that we'd cycled over or around from Grange.
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| Near the cafe is the statue of Eric Morecambe. |
In Morecambe we joined a dedicated cycleway to Lancaster which made route finding easy! It was good to see it well used by cyclists and walkers as well.
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| Looking towards the Lune Millenium bridge from the cycleway going to Lancaster. This forms part of Sustrans route 6 and was opened to commemorate 2000. |
We stayed a while in Lancaster before heading to the Lune shore to follow a dedicated cycleway to Glasson Docks, the end of the Bay Cycle Way. This passes through Conder Green with a pub and also a cafe well situated for cyclists.
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| The marsh land aside the cycle way between Conder Green and Glasson. Conder Green is on the right hand side of the photo. On the other side of the Lune is the village of Overton. |
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| Emily at the end of the cycleway ! A very pleasant spot with the cafe, "Lantern O' Er Lune" opposite. |
Glasson Dock was once a busy industrial port (after about 1830) connected to the Lancaster canal at Galgate
via the Glasson branch that drops about 50 feet from the Lancaster canal itself. The dock itself is still in use and the canal branch still passable for larger boats. We also walked along a very pleasant towpath between Galgate and Glasson passing by six locks through mainly animal pastures.
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| I couldn't finish without showing a great sunset taken from alongside the Lancaster canal. |
This is a great cycle-way that is generally well marked (we found a few problems at the beginning so a Explorer Map is useful). It is hilly in places and I would say, as the prevailing wind is south-west, best done in the direction we had chosen. There are plenty of places to enjoy the scenery and get refreshments and meals. We took three days for the entire ride and this felt comfortable giving plenty of time to explore and stop to make camp etc. There are plenty of bed and breakfasts in the villages and towns and also few campsites.
My return by train went reasonable although I do look forward to the day that they are nationalised again or the dreaded Virgin Trains forced to treat cyclists with more consideration.
