GLW2212 : We're Going To The Chapel

Sunday 21st August 2022

The Chapel in question is that on the appropriately named Chapel Island in the middle of the Leven Estuary in Morecambe Bay.  There has been a chapel there since the 14th Century but it wasn't this one.  The original was built for the local fishermen and for the Augustine Monks to pray for safe passage across the bay with its treacherous quicksands.  It wasn't even then called Chapel Island but was known as Harlesyde Isle.  It was given its present name by Mrs Ann Radcliffe in her book "Observations during a Tour of the Lakes", published in 1795.

The present chapel ruin is in fact a folly.  It was built in the 1820s by Colonel Thomas Richard Gale Braddyll to enhance the view from Conishead Priory.

The island nearly had a railway station when George Stephenson was considering alternatives to the hilly route over Shap Fell.  Far from being by train or other motorised vehicle, our visit was to be by foot, wading through the River Leven at low tide.

About 200 people (and nearly as many dogs) set off from Sand Gate Farm near Flookburgh on a charity walk in aid of St John's Hospice.  

When we reached Lenibrick Point we turned west and stepped onto the sands.

Some folk went barefoot, others (like us) chose to keep shoes on.  The strategy was soon tested when we had to ford a channel.  Your shoes get wet, your feet get wet, but what's the problem?  Your skin is waterproof.

It is quite a sensation standing on the sands, a mile out from the shore with the distant Lakeland Hills to the north.....

..... and, to the south, sand as far as the eye can see, broken only by odd channels of water.

After an hour or so and two or three wadings we arrived at Chapel Island.

This weekend has been the first time this year that people have been allowed onto the island as it is protected whilst the birds are nesting.

The island is quite overgown and it is difficult to see the folly.  I climbed the small cliff ....

.... and found it surrounded by small trees.  However the main attributes of the island are the distant view of the hills .....

..... and the hint of sea a long way off.

I was not at all surprised when a group of ladies started looking admiringly at me. Quite understandable, I thought.  It came as a bit of a shock to discover that it was the carving on the rock on which I was sat that interested them.  J K Manning 2008.  They seemed to know who he was.  Uncle Google doesn't.

After half an hour the group set off on its return.  

The channels seemed a little deeper now.  The tide was on the turn.  

An hour later we were back on terra firma.  It had been quite an experience.  We'd been to the Chapel and we had got our feet wet!  But it was worth it.

Don, Sunday 21st August 2022

A more detailed and erudite account of a Castle Island visit from the other (and seemingly scarier) side can be found at Peter Caton's No Boat Required.

GLW2212 :  5.2 miles, 70 feet

Great Little Walks
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