BOOTboys

THE CUMBRIA COASTAL PATH

CCP08: Low Wood to Ulverston

Wednesday 11th November

Back to Low Wood to pick up the Cumbria Coastal Path and to our delight we were able to park right at the start of the route, by the Rver Leven. The first mile was a very pleasant stroll through mostly open fields, close to the meandering river.

A River Leven meander

Looking back, there was a good view of the hills we climbed on CCP07.

CCP07's skyline walk

Also, in the distance, the Coniston Fells could be clearly seen.

The weather didn't quite know what to do. There was a dappled sky with the sun trying to break through but a cold breeze. After a short woodland section we were puzzled to discover that the cloud had simply vanished and it was such a nice day that a three stepped stile was too good an opportunity not to use as two seats and a table in between for lunch.

Coniston Fells

Table for two

Shortly afterward the Coastal Path crosses the river as it becomes estuary.

At this point the Path continues for a mile and half along the exceedingly busy A 590. Just why the perpetrators decided on such an awful route escapes me but we are not slaves to the unreasonable whims of others and decided to create our own itinerary. We passed under the dual carriageway, into Greenodd and up to Penny Bridge, only to discover that this was the way those who designed the cycle route had chosen. Seemingly they had rather more respect for the enjoyment and safety of those who follow their plans!

Greenodd put on a fine display of washing for Margaret, whilst the Penny Bridge School fooled me with a sign that, from a distance, I thought had been vandalised- but not so!

A fine display of washing

A non-vandalised sign

We cut through the grounds of the St Mary's Church of at which point the clouds miraculously reappeared.

St Mary's Church

The view from the church door

Our route continued along the back lanes past the intriguingly named Toppin Rays, a Noah's Ark somehow washed up in a field, a hedgelayer hard at work, the lovely cottages at Bowstead Gate, the misnamed Alps Farm and down to Newland Bottom

53665 Noah's Ark

Bowstead Gate cottages

The hedgelayer

Newland Bottom

This is a pretty cluster of mill buildings and cottages where we got talking to a lady who told us that she had lived there for 59 years and her late husband had been the last miller. She astonished us when she said she was 84, she looked 20 years younger. Obviously a person who takes great pride in her garden, we promised that we would return next year when the flowers are in bloom.

From here, we climbed up the hill, watched closely by a bull that was stamping his feet at us. At the top there was a wide view of the estuary and there would have been a good view of the Sir John Barrow Monument- a non working replica of the Eddystone lighthouse, except that it was underwraps, being restored with lottery money, I later discovered..

The panorama including the Sir John Barrow Monument

I simply cannot understand why this obvious viewpoint is not part of the official route.

The panorama from the Sir John Barrow Monument

It is only a short drop into Ulverston from the Monument, past the seats given to the town by Glaxo to celebrate its 30 years there and along by The Walker's Hotel with its mural of a pair of boots.

The Monument and the Glaxo seats

The Walker's Hotel

As we had plenty of time before the bus to take us back to Haverthwaite, we walked into town for a bit of a look round. I have always thought of Ulverston as a rather depressed little town but I have to admit that there are some lovely looking shops, a fine Laurel & Hardy statue and, I must say, the people seemed extremely friendly.

However we fell out with the World Peace Café- they closed on us just as we arrived. That's not a very effective way to cement Word Peace. No such problem at Café Coffee2!

The bus back to Haverthwaite was late arriving and it was night by the time we alighted. Crossing the dual carriageway was a challenge that reminded us how right we had been to devise our own route earlier in the day. We then had a dark but not too scary three quarters of a mile back to the car along the back roads to Low Wood.

This was a satisfying section. Several of our recent sections have been circular walks so had not taken us as far along the CCP as we would have liked. Today, we had mostly been making positive progress and, in our opinion, a superior form of progress to the official route!

Don, 11th November 2009

PS No solarizations in the report today but if you want to see some, scroll down beyond the map.

The 8.6 miles covered brings our CCP total to 55.1 miles.
There was also 990 feet of climbing.

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