WYRE WAY


 

 

                         The Wyre Way - August 15th. Sept. 17th. and 19th. 2013

 

Day 1 is a circular walk starting and finishing at the ferry pier at Knott End-on-Sea. To fit in with tides, we decided to do the circuit anti-clockwise, which meant we had, first of all, to take the ferry across the River Wyre to Fleetwood. The first 3 miles or so are a bracing walk along the sea front as far as Rossall School, where we then had to cut inland to rejoin the River again. From there the route passes through The Wyre Estuary Country Park and keeps close to the River all the way to Shard Bridge. This was once an old toll bridge but is now a modern structure to take present day traffic flows.

After crossing the bridge we descended to the River bank again and continued our walk, through Hambleton, northwards back to Knott End. Total distance for the day 16 miles 

 

                                                                                                                                                         Overgrown path near Shard Bridge.

 

Day 2 began from the main car park in Garstang, where we took taxis to the start of the walk at Shard Bridge. Not the best of days weather wise, but fortunately never as bad as the weather forecasters would have had us believe. Sections of the route suffered badly from lack of maintenance, and as a result the best of the walking was more often than not, where the path was away from the River. Nevertheless we made the 13 mile walk back to our cars in Garstang with only one mishap. Dave, one of our members, had lost his iphone en route. To make matters worse he had failed to display the parking ticket he had bought earlier and was faced with a £25 fine. All was not lost however as, with the aid of modern technology, his son later retrieved his phone, out of the undergrowth but still in working order. 

 

                                                                                                                                                            Car Park in Garstang

 

Day 3. Today's walk started from Garstang and followed the River upstream as far as Abbeystead. This is where the Tarnbrook Wyre meets the Marshaw Wyre. From there we first of all followed the Tarnbrook Wyre as far as the tiny hamlet at Tarnbrook, before heading uphill and over White Moor to Tower Lodge. This is where we joined the Marshaw Wyre and followed it downstream to where we ended our walk and The Wyre Way at Abbeystead. 

 

                                                                                                                                                         End of the walk at Abbeystead 

Fortunately day 3 was a better walk all round. 17 miles in better scenery, the going was better underfoot and sunshine to end the day on a happy note. Amazing how misgivings about earlier parts of the walk seemed to disappear, particularly as we felt a sence of achievement at having added another long distance path to our list of completions.

 

Thanks to Jeff for leading the walk and sorting out times to suit tides and arranging transport for us when necessary.