On a rather damp day eight members, a guest and no dogs gathered on Shore Road in Silverdale to complete an enjoyable 11 mile loop of the area. The guest, Mark son of the leader, added to the range of conversation extending our knowledge of musical composition as installations.

Heading away from the shore into Scout Wood Silverdale Well emerged, now rich with wildlife. This well originally supplied the village with fresh water sadly now impure; an adjacent trough was used for cattle. Moving on through wood to pass Wolf gallery and then heading back to an eerily misty shoreline viewing a rather grey high tide. A brief stop was made to test the Giant Seat on Jack Scout before going along the beach to Jenny Brown’s point.  Further local history included examination of lime kilns before going inland via Crag Foot with Warton Crag to the right.

Woodland areas displayed a range of wild flowers and trees offered cover from the continuing drizzle as the walk continued by Leak Hill Wood entering Hyming Scout Wood. Walking north before arriving at Deepdale Wood a hill was ascended allowing an ideal lunch stop with benches overlooking Leighton Hall.  At this point the rain stopped and a wonderful view of the Hall and coastline accompanied sandwiches. Dropping back to the lower path the walk continued onto Deepdale and Cringlebarrow Wood leading into Yealand Storrs.

Passing Yealand Hall Allotment onto fields a National Nature Reserve was entered gaining views of Hawes Water Moss and Hawes Water as the path skirted round to head back towards Silverdale. Passing by King William’s Hill disused water storage was seen in the form of 3 large tanks that had once served a large country house now a pub. Further on beautiful gardens were admired with some very impressive hollyhocks. The final section was back to the shore, walking past a cave onto part of the Lancashire Coastal Way with stunning views across the mud flats and out to sea with light cloud.

A very varied and enjoyable walk which included lots of interesting geology, local history and wildlife. The rain, although on occasions making some of the limestone rocks slippery, caused little mud due to the porous nature of the area.   An owl up late, sheep, a field of cows and one cow alone on the early higher shoreline testing their rock climbing ability and Alpacas near the village centre added to the diversity.

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