out West

Oh to be beside the seaside again last week - such joy!

August 2019 Morecombe Bay

So naturally we started with Morecombe itself.  Despite growing up with New Brighton, Southport and Blackpool as my go-to seaside towns, I'd never been to Morecombe - until now!  And I just love a seaside town, the air, the light and the bustle.

And Morecombe prom has evidently been given a beautiful facelift - very impressive wide sweep, shared amicably by walkers and cyclists, beautifully planted grasses, stylish seats  and that stunning backdrop of the Lakeland fells. 

The sunshine was a joy - we'd battled over from Sheffield that morning, eating our butties in a service station car park somewhere around Manchester in such driving biblical style rain we'd not even dared make a dash to the loo!

But typically for the West coast, the rain lifted and the sun came out, just for our visit!

We strolled along the prom (prom, prom) from end to end, luxuriating in a warm sea breeze and blue skies - finally treating ourselves to a cuppa with a view, in the recently refurblished Midland Hotel - a striking Art Deco relic of the great railway age and opposite a pretty stunning station building. 

Then of course it was time for an ice cream, but not before a peek at the renovations going on at the palatial Winter Gardens

 So many streets of stunning old houses and not enough time to explore

 but always time for a bit of sunshine and that smile

And then we headed north via Carnforth Station, film set for Brief Encounter.  We were too late for the iconic cafe but was interesting to have a peek through the windows.

Next we headed to our holiday destination - Arnside and Silverdale, very deservedly an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  And after checking in to our wonderful AirBnB we were just in time to see the last of the sun setting over River Kent Estuary and the mighty Lakeland Fells while we ate our evening meal.

I'd been wanting to visit this part of the coast for many many years - loving the way it sits there on the map nestled between the Lakes and Lancashire, almost like a shallow peninsula.  On the OS map there are few roads and the many nature reserves and hill viewpoints have to be reached by footpath.  There's the famous Leighton Moss nature reserve and the National Trust areas and all the many other parts of the AONB including limestone pavements at Gait Barrows and on parts of the coast.  It's also famous for it's butterfly population, birds, wildflowers and treacherous quicksands.  We'd both grown up being warned by school and home about the quicksands on our local beaches but it had been a long time, so this was a good reminder to take care.

Next morning we started off in Arnside with a cracking artisan coffee at the lovely Moochin' About.  

Then walked south along the rocky beach, marvelling at this estuary and it's wide expanse of sea, sky and mountains. 

Turns out you can do mud walks from Arnside over to Grange Over Sands, led by a Queen's Guide, no less!  This looks so amazing and is now on our must-do list.  Cedric Robinson, the Queen's Guide who's led the walks for 56 years retired this year, however a new guide has been appointed and the tradition continues.

So after a great picnic on the little prom at Arnside, we drove over to Silverdale to do some coastal walking there too.  The sun was blazing and the skies blue and the wide expanse of the estuary running into the Irish Sea was just magnificent.

We were staying just below Arnside Knott (a Marilyn if you've ever heard of those?), so we pottered up an ancient rutted track to an even more ancient and faded wooden topograph, telling us that we could see almost every Lakeland peak worth mentioning from that one viewpoint!  Absolutely stunning, just reminded us of our first distant view of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho a couple of years ago.

Then it was back to Arnside promenade to join the queue for some spectacular fish and chips at Arnside Chip Shop and a setting sun across the railway bridge.

And having spotted that there railway bridge, we had to make the spectacular 4 minute train journey from Arnside to Grange over Sands the next morning before we headed home.

 To arguably the most picturesque train station ever - perched on the estuary

Then back again to Arnside and our drive home to Sheffield.  End of a fabulous stay.

to the lighthouse

A Sunday stroll to Moreton shore the other week held a treat in store, as the magnificent old Leasowe Lighthouse was open to visitors.  Lighthouse tours are every first Sunday of the month.

Great history website to read here - all about how Leasowe Lighthouse is the oldest standing brick built lighthouse left in the whole of Europe

 so in we went

 and wound our way up to the very top for views across to the Great Orme

 just felt we could touch those Welsh hills

and if you are feeling the urge to gaze out to sea all day - here's the Leasowe Lighthouse webcam to help you do just that!

a bridge too far

Saturday 27 February

Today combined my love off all things industrial and all things sea, as we explored the bit of the East coast between Middlesborough and Hartlepool - a first for me.

But first the lovely Darlington with it's grand buildings from the great age of the train. The once terminus of the world's first pubic railway - Stockton and Darlington Railway

and a trip to the covered market

Then a winding tour up and down the many little gennels

Then back in the car and onward to Middlesborough and a bridge lover's heaven.

Not sure which one this is (the Tees Newport bridge maybe - repainted?)- but loved it

and had to venture across

But finally to the gem of them all - the beautiful Tees Transporter Bridge.  There really can't be many of these left in the world

and lucky for us it was open 

so we waited for the cradle to swing across and load us onboard

bought our ticket

and swung across the River Tees in style

SO exciting!!

The next bit of the day was inspired by this great Guardian article written in 2014, celebrating the opening of new bits of the NE coastal path - read here for more

Soon we were at the Tees estuary where it meets with the North Sea

An incredible juxtaposition of nuclear power stations and oil processing plants, alongside beautiful sandhills and beaches - very Daliesque.  Wonderfully surreal.

and after that lovely blast of sea air, onward to Hartlepool, the old Quay area and a quick peek into the Maritime Museum

Next we drove on to 'Headland' in Hartlepool which is an amazing peninsula of Georgian houses and tales of shipfaring and coal.

with a highly recommended and as fresh as you could get, fish and chips at Mary Rowntree's en route round the Headland

But time was cheating us, the light began to dim and it soon became too dark to venture onwards north up the coast to Sunderland - next time ........

So it was sort of sad to leave the adventure when we'd only just found the disused pier on the front of the Guardian coastal walk article - but we'll definitely return to this spot and continue north some day.

To see what we did on Sunday - last day of this fab holiday and another lovely walk - just click here.

If you missed the start of this birthday weekend then just click here.