A west coast woodland wander

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Silverdale and Arnside

We travelled up to Silverdale and Arnside, one of the gems of the west coast. Once again Leeds buses did their best to ruin our day as we set out early that morning - maybe we should have cycled to the station. Arriving over 15 minutes late at the railway station, we were just in time to miss our train to Carnforth. So, plan B involved going via Manchester, the long way round. Sitting opposite were some opinionated young travellers from across the Atlantic who made some very uninspired observations of the Lancashire sights along the way to their British host. For example, Chorley is not a commonplace name across the country, and it is not pronounced Charlie; Lancaster University is not a retirement home, nor is it a hotel. (I should know, I studied there in 1993).

We got the train that we had missed at Lancaster (on its way back to Leeds!) for the last short hop to Carnforth. At Carnforth we took a break at the Brief Encounter café, made famous by the film of the same name. It’s lost much of its status now, as expresses tank through at 125 mph, but it is definitely worth a stop over. The sun was making an appearance now, as the gloom was concentrated over the east - hence our ploy of going west for the best weather.

Our walk was via Warton and the beautiful wooded hill by Warton Crag, limestone woods in the flush of Spring, dotted by wildflowers. The descent is down to the bird reserves of Leighton Moss and the tidal pools and marshes by the coast. The landscape changes again as we threaded our way towards Silverdale, through woods and green lanes befire the view opens out across the Furness peninsular. The final stage of our walk was along the wooded coastline below Arnside Knott with views across Morecambe Bay, before we turned inland and followed the Kent Estuary to the pretty village of Arnside. The sun kept an appearance and after a feed we hide a fine pint of Thwaites before the train back to Carnforth. One of the pleasures of Arnside is there is no main road running through the village, so once the daytime slips into evening, there is a wonderful peace as you take in the views across the beautiful Kent Estuary towards the Lake District fells. This time we made our train back via Skipton, which follows a scenic route between the Forest of Bowland and the western Yorkshire Dales.

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