The February Ramble – Around Garstang Via Calder & Wyre
The walk for this month, led by Veronica, was a pleasant seven mile tour of the countryside to the west of Garstang. The weather turned out to be pleasant and less cold than recently.
Starting from the main car park in Garstang, our little party of six and two dogs headed out through the village to join the Lancaster Canal and then walking south towards Catterall. The water had a slight covering of ice, but provided little difficulty for two swans that decided to investigate the dogs.
Leaving the canal at Catterall basin, we then followed a mill stream westwards across fields to Calder Bridge, crossing the main road and now following a path by the River Calder. Shortly, we arrived at the confluence of the Calder and the Wyre. Next, we had to cross the busy A6 and pick up the river Wyre for a while, eventually crossing this river by means of a very impressive suspended footbridge and heading on towards the very old and pretty village of Churchtown.
Churchtown was our lunch stop. We spread ourselves out on benches surrounding the village square in front of the very old St Helens Church and this also became our photo opportunity.
Leaving Churchtown, we crossed the equally busy Garstang-Blackpool road and pointed north towards Hall Farm and Kirkland Hall where they appear to specialize in rare breeds of cattle which we believe are Belted Galloway. A further stretch of woodland led us to another farm, Cross House. Here a giant car transporter was unloading second-hand Volkswagens for storage at the farm.
Re-crossing the A6, we then descended a steep embankment and crossed a field of sheep which avoided us at first and then decided to follow us. A short stretch of canal led us back to Garstang.
Many thanks to Veronica for a pleasant and interesting walk in an area that rarely disappoints.
Linda & Eddie Grange