'Morecambe Bay Rambles' by Robert Swain explores the countryside, towns and villages around the magnificent Morecambe Bay. A total of forty walks are included, but many of these link together to make a huge variety of possibilies for walks. All of them either touch on Morecambe Bay or have good views of it.

Many people pass the area on their way to the Lake District instead of pausing to look at what it has to offer. Some of the walks touch on the fringes of the Lake District. One of them even feels to be in the Lake District although the normal tide limit is not quite reached. That is 29, a circular walk from Haverthwaite, near the southern end of Windermere, and which passes along Rusland Pool, which is tidal until well up the Rusland valley.

The walks pass round the Bay from Glasson near Lancaster to the Isle of Walney off Barrow in Furness. Several of the involve using the shore at some point, so care has to be taken with the tides. None of the walks actually cross over the Sands as an expert guide is needed to do that. There are, of course, the popular Cross Bay walks in summer each year.

Each of the walks in the book starts and finishes at a bus stop or a railway station, enabling public transport to be used and various linear walks to be undertaken.

Besides describing the walks, some of the history of the towns, villages and countryside visited is given.

A wide variety of countryside is visited, including Leighton Moss, famous for its bird reserve and where the elusive bittern is sometimes to be seen and is heard booming in season. Warton Crag, Whitbarrow and Humphrey Head have a wide variety of plant life and wild life.

None of the walks is difficult and children, with the right footwear, will be able to do most of them when properly supervised.




'Morecambe Bay Solves the Heysham Mysteries', although not a walking book but concerned with the history of the area, can be used in conjunction with this volume.


Morecambe Bay Rambles. £10.99. ISBN 978-0-9540713-2-5