Exploring Arnside

One of the not so great things about living in the Pennines is the long distance from the sea. Even though we live in Yorkshire, the closest coastline is actually in Lancashire. For a Yorkshireman that’s a fairly grim prospect. I grew up visiting my grandparents in Filey and spent most of my childhood there and in other familiar Yorkshire coastal haunts like Whitby and Scarborough. I can’t ever remember visiting the Lancashire coast, except once to go to Blackpool pleasure beach.

So I was more than a bit surprised when I realised there are some great places on the Lancashire coast (and just over the border into Cumbria).

One of those places is Arnside. It sits just over the border in Cumbria, but outside the Lake District National Park. Because of that it’s slightly off the beaten track: there are people around, but it’s never as busy as the Lakeland honeypots like Keswick or Windermere.

Arnside sits on the Kent Estuary where it meets Morecambe Bay. It’s part of the Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape, and it still has a Victorian seaside feel to it. Silverdale is a nearby village on the Lancashire side of the border.

It’s not a typical seaside resort though. It’s a bit upmarket: a lot of the buildings are restored Victorian villas. There are good cafes and restaurants along the seafront, and when we visited it was all dog walkers and families. A few nice shops too if you’re into a spot of browsing.

The estuary is something else, Lakeland hills behind and the Arnside Viaduct stretching across the river. We heard from a local that when the viaduct was renovated, there were plans to add a walkway and cycle path so you could cross the estuary on foot or by bike. They ran out of money before it happened, which is a real shame. That would have been brilliant.

We walked up Arnside Knott, which is the obvious thing to do. We were lucky with the weather and the views from the top were worth the climb: Morecambe Bay on one side, Lakeland hills and mountains on the other. The path up is quite strenuous but it winds through good woodland, and we noticed an unusual mix of trees including some very old yews.

We took a different route back down through the woodland, which gave us a new angle on the estuary.

Back in the village we had coffee and sandwiches at the Sandpiper cafe, then had a wander along the estuary. The tide was out and everything was calm, but there were warning signs everywhere about the tidal bore: apparently the water comes rushing up the estuary when the tide turns. You could see Grange-over-Sands clearly on the far side.

A good day out. We’ll be back.

We’ve been exploring this part of the world more generally, particularly Morecambe and Lancaster itself. I never realised Morecambe and Lancaster are so close that they almost join, and you can walk between the two. Lancaster has an unusual, slightly alternative vibe. It also has one of my favourite restaurants: the Whaletail Cafe, a proper old school vegetarian place that sits above a good wholefood shop. I know quite a few people in Hebden Bridge who have connections with Lancaster and it seems the two places share a certain hippy heritage. There’s more to see.