"Boots and Brews" 2 - Glasson

Sunday 1st September 2024 

I continue to cherry-pick from Boots and Brews. I thought I may find some previously missed terrain not far from home from this guide but I have covered most of the ground before  and today was no exception. The  first half of the walk from Glasson and down the coast to Cockersand Abbey is familiar but certainly worthy of repeat. From there this route heads inland to complete all on tarmac. I can usually tell from the map if roads will be well used or not, and I reckoned these would be quiet lanes. I was wrong.  Despite these roads not being a through route to anywhere I must have encountered fifty or so cars on the second half of this walk, as well as half a dozen huge tractors with gigantic machinery attached, forcing me to stop and step off into the edge of these narrow single track roads. A short section back on the Glasson canal was heaving with people on my way  back to the car park, where this morning at 9:45 I was one of only two cars and now there were fifty or so.

There were good views back to the Bowland Hills from the toposcope on Tithe Barn Hill, my high point at about 17.5 metres above sea level.

I was then off down Marsh Lane to access the coast path. A bunch of malevolent looking sheep interrogated me at one point,  like a bunch of hoodies in some undesirable suburb - "Are you looking at me!" I'm proud to say I managed to stare them out.

Just after crossing Jason Pool there was an enclosure in isolation in the middle of the field, about twelve feet square with reinforced concrete supports at each corner about eight feet high and the whole encased in wire fencing and  overgrown with brambles and shrubbery. I couldn't even guess what its purpose may have been, see photo below. Any suggestions?

The walk down the coast to Cockersands Abbey made this trip worthwhile and would probably have been better as a there-and-back walk to that point. I spotted what I thought was a decent sized yacht crossing the bay about half a mile out. Back home when enlarged I identified it as a Wayfarer dinghy. As dinghies go these are seriously seaworthy and I've read of folk sailing to Iceland in them from the UK

Plover Scar Lighthouse was prominent. It was built in 1847 but was severely damaged by storm in March 2016. An heroic operation had it dismantled stone by stone in exact order and rebuilt and reopened in May 2017. 

At Cockersands Abbey I met an Austrian couple. They asked me if they could do a circular walk back to their car, but when I showed them the map they couldn't even show me where their car was located on the map, so I couldn't be of much help. They were pleasant and we had some chat about the contrast between their picturesque Austrian mountain country snd this windswept seashore of desolation on the west coast of England.

Cockersands Abbey dates back to 1180 and there is information on the Internet if you want to delve. 

 I have a couple of previous visits here on this blog. Here is a an extract from February 2020 about a memorable walk of mighty wind, waterlogged terrain, and some exhilaration after one of our now frequent violent storms.  I was inspired to a bit of what one may (or may not) call blank verse:

The abbey of Cockersand more bedraggled than I.

 How long I ask has it here endured?

A modest red stone cube tortured by nine hundred years

Of violent storm. The camera is too unsteady in the gale.

There is a kind of thrill, but this is no place to linger

As I turn to complete this rebellious forbidden day,

And reflect on those of stronger heart who here spent harder days

And many harder months and years.

Turning back inland the rest of this walk was on boring tarmac which did not inspire me to any further comment, and perhaps thankfully for my readers more "verse."

Glasson dock from the car park.

This lock gives access to the sea and Morecambe Bay from the Glasson canal. A bit dodgy in a flat bottomed narrow boat I think?

The toposcope on Tithe Barn Hill.
 A bit presumptuous to give this prominence of only 17.5m. above sea level the title of hill?

They should be dressed in hoodies

Jason Pool on its way to the sea, and just beyond...

...any guesses?

Crook Farm. The way to the coast path just up left of the house - next photo.

I think this is Lighthouse Cottage. Interesting stonework and the angled window for viewing out to sea

Plover Scar Lightouse. I think it is accessible on foot at low tide

This derelict farmhouse just fifty yards behind Cockersands Abbey adds to the atmosphere of desolation here

It had been too hazy from the start to see the distant Bowland Hills but now skies had cleared just enough

Boring!

Looking down Glasson Canal on its way to join the Lancaster Canal.

Anticlockwise from Glasson