The Scarisbrick Arms for our 26th Wednesday Pub Lunch

Our 5.0393 miles (8.11 km) route, to the Scarisbrick Arms for lunch, has been saved. The URL for this route is...

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6679297

Again, I don't think I need to provide step by step directions as the path is fairly clear and the map will provide greater detail.

The walk starts in the car park behind Costa, in Maghull and the first part of the walk follows the steps we took two weeks ago.
Although the Scarisbrick Arms is next to the Leeds Liverpool Canal, we took a route across country, along lanes...

...and across fields and streams...

Among many other things, we saw...

• teasels (Dipsacus) still in flower 

• Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillars on Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris)

• Fields of flowering potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

• sheep

• Highland Cattle (Bos (primigenius) taurus) (with two calves)

• horses

• foals (Behind mum)

and 

• the Downholland Cross, Cross.

Visit https://sharalike.com/s/frKX to watch a video clip of the photographs I took or view it in the embedded clip below...

We arrived at the Scarisbrick Arms at about 13:30 and, if you are interested you can take a look at how we rated our lunch at...

http://maghullfoodie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-scarisbrick-arms-our-26th-w.html

After lunch it was a short walk across the road, to catch the 300 bus back to Maghull.

Another enjoyable walk in the North West of England (Merseyside & Lancashire)

Bickerstaffe Loop

A quick look on my new Ordnance Survey Explorer, plastic coated, Active Map and we were off on our Sunday 5.3889 miles walk.

No I didn't know the distance until I plotted the route, which can be viewed at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=6110784

Why this route? Well there were a couple of woodland that I've passed many times on my journeys up and down the M58 that I often thought, "We'll do a walk one Sunday to take a closer look at those woods". Today was that day.

The other reason,it was close to home and there was an off chance of rain! 

Approaching from Church Road to Bickerstaffe, we parked at the church.

Heading back along Church Road, we turned right along the edge of,then through, Intake Wood. 

Crossing fields,using very clear well kept paths we skirted Jubilee Wood and then across the A570.

It's difficult to imagine the now disused mine shafts when mining was active here. The woodland, well established, hiding the slag heap and any signs of mining. This whole area must have been so different.

Lots of signs of Autumn with leaves changing colour, that autumnal aroma and fungi.

Some of you may wonder why we meandered as much as we did, before reaching Collery Plantation, next to White Moss Road South. Well let's just say it avoided going through farmyards and the potential of confrontations with farm-dogs. Something one of us isn't comfortable with. 

There was an interesting collection of plants just before entering Collery Plantation.

Will certainly attract a wide range of birds.

A slight detour, to look at the lake in Collery Plantation,

...and we were off again to walk to, what we had avoided so far. Lyelake Farm! 

Chris wondered if the farm's name was linked with the mining activity in this area. Lye is a term that can refer to the liquid obtained by leaching ashes (containing largely potassium carbonate or "potash"), or to a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. It is commonly the alternative name of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or historically potassium hydroxide (KOH). Both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are used in soap making. Sodium hydroxide is often used to make solid soap while potassium hydroxide is used to make liquid soap. Soaps made of potassium hydroxide are softer and can more easily be dissolved in water than sodium hydroxide soaps.

We had commented about how many fields of potatoes hadn't been harvested. Walking through the farm answered that question. Every barn, trailer and other storage spaces were packed to the brim.

It was also nice to see the Saddle Back pigs. In this field, between Lyelake Plantation and Lyelake Lane, was one boar with seven sows.

Crossing the A570, next to the Stanley Gate Pub, well worth a visit (although on our last visit the food was good but, the choice of Bitter Beers was poor) we made our way past the now converted windmill and through another plantation following Bickerstaffe Brook.

Across The M58, via a footbridge, we made our way past Little Wood, onto Hall Lane and back to Bickerstaffe Church.

Another nice walk on the Merseyside, Lancashire borders and yes we avoided the rain!

High Winds and abrasive sand

On reflection our blog is turning into a collection of weather reports rather than a blog about our walks. However the forecast wasn't good and equiped with waterproofs we set off to Ainsdale where this weeks walk began.
For once the start wasn't even near a pub! We had decided to walk part of the Sefton Coastal Path going from Ainsdale towards Formby and the 'Fisherman's Path'. I decided, in view of the high winds, to walk back along the beach with the wind behind us. Oh how pleased we both were.
The start of the walk took us alonside the Liverpool-Southport Merseyrail line before cutting through the Merseyside Forest (Red Squirrel country; sadly we didn't see any. In fact we saw very little in the way of wildlife). The woodland protected us from the worst of the wind but the thuds of pine-cones hitting the ground made us think that hard-hats would have been a good idea.
Once on the beach the full force of the wind was felt. As already stated, we were so pleased the wind was at our backs. As can be seen, the moving sand looked almost like smoke hugging the ground.

Thank goodness for long trousers!

Large container vessels struggled out of the Port of Liverpool, through the white horses, into Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea; and yet on the beach little shells and other objects protected sand from erosion.

We made good time with the wind hastening our progress; both of us surprised that we had walked 7.2856 miles. If you want to walk in our footsteps the map of our route can be found at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2010693;
PS Check which way the wind is blowing before you decide which way round you complete the walk!

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