South Lakeland Weekend

Saturday

Up early for a short drive up the M6 to the former fishing port of Arnside. We last visited a couple of years ago so it was nice to return for a walk on Arnside Knott, this time to do the Adventure Labs that were published earlier in the year.

Beautiful carpet of garlic

There is a lot of wild garlic about at the moment, it's not for everyone but I think the smell is gorgeous.

Arnside tower was built in the second half of the 15th century. It's a Scheduled Monument and Grade II listed building. It's currently in private ownership but you can view it from the nearby footpath.

Next stop was Grange-over-Sands on the north side of Morecambe Bay. The town developed in the Victorian era from a small fishing village to a popular seaside resort, this was due to the arrival of the railway in 1857. The 'over-Sands' suffix was added in the late 19th or early 20th century by the local vicar who was fed up with his post going to Grange in Borrowdale near Keswick by mistake.

Bar headed goose and goslings

Ornamental Gardens or 'Duck Pond' as it's known locally

Grange Lido was built on the seafront in 1932 and remained in use until 1993. It was given Grade II listed status in 2011 and there is currently a campaign to restore and reopen it which you can read all about here >>

The River Kent used to flow past the town's mile long promenade but its course migrated south away from Grange. The sands or salt marsh are dangerous due to quicksand and not really suitable for walking on.

After seeing a number of 'squirrel' benches we were keen to know the history behind them.

After a bit of googling it would seem that the seats were donated in 1999 by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations. There were 50 benches originally and they were copies of the original Furness Railway platform seats.

Next stop was Ulverston for a walk up to the Hoad Monument.

We've passed this monument a few times on our trips to this area but and haven't walked up to the tower on Hoad Hill since 2002 when we came to this area on a family holiday.

The proper name of this 100ft tower is the Sir John Barrow Monument and was erected in 1850 at a cost of £1250. Sir John was a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society. The monument was designed to resemble a lighthouse but has never had a functional light.

About 10 years ago the tower underwent a £1.2 million restoration. You can see the difference in these two photos

2002 - you can see our children and dogs sitting at the bottom

2021 - Charlie sitting at the bottom

We were able to climb up the staircase to the top of the tower in 2002 but sadly it wasn't open today. Hopefully we can return in the future.

Another 'squirrel' bench near the tower

Making the most of the fabulous sunshine which is set to change for tomorrow unfortunately.

Sunday

As per the forecast we woke to heavy rain and high winds but undeterred we headed to Roa Island to do the virtual.

Roa Island Road

Until 1847 Roa Island was a true island being accessible only by boat or on foot across the sands at low tide. In 1840 a London banker named John Abel Smith bought the island and built a causeway.

We passed a shipwreck on the way, a bit of research and I found out that the Vita Nova Z588 was a Belgian Trawler built in 1967. She later spent time in Ireland and after being decommissioned ended up in Cumbria. Eventual sold for scrap and converted to a houseboat and anchored just off the causeway between Rampside and Roa Island. A family lived on her until the really high tides at the end of 2014 washed her ashore.

After a very chilly walk around Barrow in Furness to do a couple of sets of Adventure Labs we headed to an old cache from 2003 at Askham-in-Furness.

Despite the biting cold wind and rain it was an enjoyable walk along the shore of the Duddon Estuary to Dunnerholme.

A far cry from a the beautiful sunny evening we enjoyed yesterday so we decided to head home a bit earlier than planned. We'll definitely be back again very soon to this area as there are so many more places to explore.

Thanks for reading.

Wirral Weekend

It's great to be able to get away at weekends again in our campervan, we've really missed it.

The forecast wasn't good for this weekend, with rain showers all weekend but we decided to go for it anyway, we've been cooped up long enough.

I wanted to pop into one of the shops at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet first thing before they got too busy so we had an early start to get there for 9am.

While we were there we did the multi from 2008. Not sure why we didn't notice it on our last visit a few years ago.

Charlie keeping watch while I looked for the cache.

Next stop was Port Sunlight.

Isn't it strange how fast the time goes, I know they say that as you get older the time goes faster but this is just getting ridiculous - If you'd asked me what year we last visited Port Sunlight I'd have said no earlier than 2017 but no it was way back in 2014!! Strange to think that back then we had no intention of moving anywhere let alone relocating to the North West! We visited to do the Port Sunlight Wherignome so we were really looking forward to coming back again and doing the Adventure Labs.

Port Sunlight is a village on the Wirral Peninsula built by Lever Brothers to accommodate its workers in its soap factory (now part of Unilever).

Port Sunlight is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent

Port Sunlight was declared a conservation area in 1978 and contains more than 900 Grade II listed buildings in 130 acres of parkland and gardens. Today it is home to a museum, art gallery, parkland and a thriving community. In normal times it receives more than 300,000 visitors a year.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Loved the tea room with its Fine Pair salt and pepper pots

Next stop: New Brighton.

• 

An enjoyable stroll around this seaside resort for a set of Adventure lab caches and a few other caches and by coincidence we met the Adventure Lab CO, SirPhilPamandRob in a supermarket car park later in the day. Seemed strange talking to another cacher about caching after this long period of time without meeting other cachers at events. Really looking forward to being able to attend some mega events again this year.

• 

• 

Interestingly Wallasey was where the first British guide dogs were trained in 1931 and there's a statue in New Brighton to commemorate this.

• 

• 
  

Torrential rain set in for the rest of the evening so we headed back to the van.

Up early the following morning to continue our walk around New Brighton to do a couple of Earthcaches and a multi.

Fort Perch Rock is a coastal defence battery built between 1825 and 1829. It was built to protect the Port of Liverpool and proposed as a fortified lighthouse to replace the old Perch Rock Light, however a separate lighthouse was built.

• 

• 

• 

After the heavy rain yesterday the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Perfect for our next stop to another seaside resort, this time Hoylake.

• 

• 

There is currently a local campaign to rake the beach at Hoylake - it would seem that since 2019 the beach hasn't been managed and is awaiting public consultation and a final plan which will decide whether or not the beach will be raked to remove vegetation.

Watching the world go by

A few notable people with connections to Hoylake:

The actor Daniel Craig grew up in Hoylake as did AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams. Former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman was born in Hoylake.

Back in the van and onward to Ashton Park in West Kirby for a set of Adventure labs.

• 

On the way home we stopped off in Parkgate by which time it was pouring with rain.

• 

• 

Parkgate is famous for its ice cream but it was far too wet to queue outside the ice cream shops so we just did the Adventure Labs and continued home.

Thanks for reading 😀