2025

Lancaster – City country and coast

Moderate

7.5 miles | 12.1 km | 139 m Ascent | 8.2 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
A couple of years ago, we tried an interesting experiment – we started a walk in the centre of Lancaster and included a significant rural element in our route. That walk was a great success, and with a little time having passed we thought it worth re-running with a few minor changes to the points of interest we visit in the city centre.
Starting from Sugar House Alley, we walk through the city centre to the Lancaster Canal where we head South along the towpath – this gives a very urban view of Lancaster and its industrial heritage.
We leave the canal just after the west coast main line railway bridge, and head down a side street into the Fairfield Association Nature Reserve. That trail brings us back to the canal at Haverbreaks, and we again head South before leaving almost immediately to take a path through Aldcliffe to the Lune estuary where we take the embankment North through the marshes. Opposite Oxcliffe Hill, we head inland through Freemans Wood and on to Abrahams Heights. We are now back in a very urban environment, heading past the bustle of the railway station and then the Priory and Castle, before returning to the city centre, where we visit more heritage sites.

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Bordley

Easy

7.2 miles | 11.7 km | 296 m Ascent | 8.7 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
We try very hard when we design our walks: We need to find starting points with suitable parking, and we need to find walks that offer a wide variety of interests on the way round. We need to think about where we can stop for breaks, and we need to think about whether changing conditions might make the route impassible – ideally, with an alternative if that’s the case. Finally, we like to offer great views – because that after all is such a big part of why we go walking in this wonderful landscape.
What we can’t do unfortunately is turn off the fog. So, today’s walk does have brilliant views . . . it’s just that they were hidden by mist and so don’t show on the pictures. Follow the route on a better day and we promise you there’s a lot to see.

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Local Walk January 2025

Easy

5.2 miles | 8.4 km | 171 m Ascent | 6.1 Naismith miles | Sandra Craggs
The walk for January 9th was scheduled to be at Winster. However, prolonged freezing conditions made the minor roads in that area a significant black ice risk.
We therefore postponed that walk and substituted a local stroll in and around Bentham.
This is the second week in a row that icy conditions have triggered a change of plan, and just as last week, we see this as an opportunity rather than a problem: Bentham is a great place to live, and a great place to walk. The route we present here stands comparison with any of our more distant routes and reminds us how lucky we are to live here.

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