• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Further Reading

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Walk 1

South from Silverdale: Jack Scout,

Jenny Brown’s Point and Heald Brow

Start/finish         Silverdale, end of Shore Road (SD 458749)
Distance             3½ miles (5.6km)
Height gain        75m (246ft)
Time                   2–2½hrs
Parking              Public car park on shore
Refreshment     Silverdale Hotel on Shore Road, Royal Hotel in village centre; cafés in Silverdale and at Kayes Nursery Gardens and Wolfhouse Gallery
Toilets                Silverdale near Gaskell Hall

The route offers varied, mostly easy walking with stunning views across the bay. There is a stretch of lane walking at the start, since erosion of the salt-marsh has removed the easy walking along the base of the cliffs. A short section past Brown’s Houses may be impassable for a time at the highest tides. The ascent of Heald Brow includes some rough and rocky sections.

Start from the car park (honesty box) at the end of Shore Road. Park carefully as the highest tides can cover the car park. Walk back towards the village along Shore Road, and 40m before the Silverdale Hotel turn right along a gravel drive between a house and a garage. A footpath leads on to emerge at Lindeth Road. Turn right and walk past Kayes Nursery Gardens to a junction at Wolfhouse Gallery. Keep straight on the narrower lane at Gibraltar Farm past Lindeth Tower and soon there is access on the right to Jack Scout, a National Trust area of heathland. Descend to see the restored limekiln. See how the top of the kiln was lined with sandstone to prevent the kiln itself burning away.

Continue on the path opposite the kiln, over a slight rise and curving left. Soon you reach the edge of Cow’s Mouth; keep along the cliff top on a fenced path with beautiful views over the bay. Don’t miss the Giant’s Seat, a few metres up grass on the left, a large slab of limestone with a walled back, in a commanding position.

The Giant’s Seat
The prospect is so good that the seat is irresistible. It is an excellent spot to watch the tide racing in, far more reassuring than from the foot of the cliffs! In winter you will see huge flocks of dunlin and knott which congregate in tight groups and feed on the sand. You may also see shelduck, although without binoculars it is difficult to see the distinctive tan flash on their breast. Views across the bay are wide – from the clustered tiered houses of Grange on the right, past the low wooded hump of Humphrey Head to the distant chimneys of Barrow. On the left are the squat towers of Heysham Power Station. Dominating everything is the expanse of glistening water channels and sands of the bay.

To continue the walk from the Giant’s Seat regain the path by the fence and pass a stile on the right where the Low Tide Adventure Scramble comes in (see below). At a little dip another stile can be crossed to the shore if you enjoy scrambling across the rocks or the sticky walking of the sands. An easier route lies along the path across a bushy dip and up to a right fork through a gate. Continue to another gate and exit onto the lane. There is a viewpoint seat a few yards to the right, where the remains of the old breakwater can be seen. Keep along the lane to Jenny Brown’s Point.

The ruined stone jetty of Jenny Brown’s Point was built to facilitate the construction of the copper smelt mill. It is difficult to imagine ships tying up against it, but at the time, in the late 18th century, the channel must have been deep enough. From the same point there is a ruined stone embankment which runs a considerable distance into the bay. This is a relic of an over-ambitious land reclamation scheme of 1873. It was intended to reclaim the marshes between Jenny Brown’s Point and Hest Bank, but the company ran out of funds and the scheme was abandoned. The embankment lay buried beneath the sand until 1977, when changes in the channel revealed it. Now it has been breached by the channel and is being destroyed.
Jenny Brown was a nanny who was drowned whilst saving her charges from the rising tide.

The road is a popular access point for motorists but with very limited parking space and even more awkward turning space. Behind is a long quarry, where stone was obtained for the breakwater. Round the corner, go onto the rocky shore, just before Brown’s Houses and reach the prominent chimney.

This chimney was built around 1800 and it was believed to a remnant of a copper smelting works active from1780–1820. Other theories to the chimney’s origins include a mine ventilation shaft, a relic of a water-pumping scheme or a beacon to guide ships bringing ore for the Leighton Beck furnace. Copper was mined on the hill close by in Elizabethan times and until much later across the marsh at Crag Foot on the flanks of Warton Crag. The chimney at Crag Foot was part of a pumping station which drained the flat land around Leighton Moss.

Continue along the turf, cross a stile and reach a signpost at an embankment, the relic of the Crag Foot scheme. Here you leave the coast and take a path left, signed Heald Brow. The path is well marked and climbs, occasionally over bare rock, to a slit stile. Continue through trees to the pastures on top of Heald Brow. Go over a stile and continue at the side of a wall, pass a gap in another wall and cross a little triangular wood above a barn. Through a gate join a narrow walled track and turn right to reach the road. Wolfhouse Gallery, a craft centre, art gallery and café, lies a few minutes down the road to the left.

Cross the road slightly right and descend a path signed Woodwell, which runs below the long line of overgrown crags. A square pool is reached, called Woodwell, whose waters are fuelled by a well at the foot of the crags. Woodwell was once an important watering spot for drovers’ cattle, and is now a popular picnic spot.There is an adjacent car park and from it, by a seat, a path runs into Bottoms Wood.In Spring the floor of the wood is carpeted first with wood anemones, followed by garlic-scented ramsons. Pass through a gap in a wall and turn right along a path to the first houses of Silverdale village. Having passed a cottage, keep right on a path between the houses and the woods. Go through a walled snicket and pass a private lane to reach the main road. Turn left along this and down Shore Road back to the car park.

Low-tide Adventure Scramble

Start/finish        as for main walk
Distance            2 miles (3.2km)
Time                  1hr
Note                    It is imperative to consult the tide tables and the Morecambe Bay Advice Leaflet available locally. The tide comes in very rapidly so it is best to start when the tide is
                            receding. The channel comes up to the cliffs and quicksands may occur even close to the shore. It is best to scramble over the rough stones, even though these are
                            slippery in places. Be prepared to get muddy footwear. Confidence and a head for heights are needed. Don’t bring your dog or very young children.

Erosion of the salt-marsh turf has changed the shoreline into a very rough walk. Where it was once a simple stroll along grass it is now an adventurous outing which needs careful planning for it can only be accomplished at low tide. Despite the difficulties the reward is the most spectacular coastal scenery in the area, a succession of craggy headlands and inspiring views over the bay. If you do not like the exposed path, you can always turn back.

Start the scramble at the car park at the end of Shore Road. Walk south along the remnant of turf at the foot of a low line of gorse-topped crags. When the grass ends scramble along the stony shore past Know End Point topped by wind-blown trees. Continue round the point on the bedrock to a pebbly cove where the easier angled rocks at its back provide a zigzag scramble onto a cliff-top path.4Do not trespass into the farmer’s fields. The path undulates along the top of crags and needs care. Turn a corner and cross over a headland into the deeper inlet of Cow’s Mouth. There is no public access up the dell at its head as this leads into the Gibraltar Farm campsite.

An impressive crag lines the east side of the cove, one of the north–south faults so prevalent in the area. It is a popular place for rock climbing although the base of the crag is covered at high tide and the rock is rather shattered. Note the red triangular scar above a small cave in the centre of the crag, where a large rock detached itself in 1983. The cave is on a mineral vein and is an old mine trial. In the 1970s turf as smooth as a bowling green abutted the crags; now it is a genuine sea cliff.

The scramble continues along the slippery stones below the crag. It is best to endure these as the muddy bed of the cove is an unpleasant walk. At the far end climb a short rock spur to reach easier, less slippery rock on a broader base. Soon a stile is seen above. This gives access to the National Trust heathland of Jack Scout. This an idyllic area of little paths and clearings amidst clusters of gorse and small trees.

Either join Walk 1 here, or to return to Silverdale go left along the fence side, below the Giant’s Seat up on the right, and continue to the restored limekiln near the lane. Turn left along the lane and left again on Lindeth Road. A shortcut signed path on the left joins Shore Road to return to the car park.