Sunday 28 June 2020

A walk to the Fairy Steps, Cumbria

After 8 years it was time to return to the Fairy Steps. We started our 3 generation walk at Milnthorpe playing field as there was a pay and display car park:

Milnthorpe playing fields

After leaving the town we crossed the deer park at Dallam Tower:

Dallam Tower deer park

The road around the edge of the park crosses some beautiful bridges:

Milnthorpe bridge at Dallam Tower

We were accompanied by Sherlock the Bichon Frise so it was great to see that a dog gate was fitted on the stile down to the Kent Estuary. The way was also very well marked with fairly new arrows:

dog gate on stile

The tide was out leaving the sands exposed:

Kent estuary

Some of the footpath was along an old railway track which was part of the old Hincaster banch line

Hincaster branch line

Then we left the shoreline to start climbing up the local hillside:

public footpath sign

Some of the paths were rather narrow thanks to a plant explosion:

bichon frise on path

It was easy to follow a route that went alongside some traditional Cumbrian dry stone walls:

dry stone wall

We ate a picnic overlooking the estuary with the Lakeland fells in the backdrop:

Kent estuary

The path then took us through woodland used for pheasants:

game wildlife area

You can tell it is a cool, damp area by the quantity of moss on the stiles:

Bichon Frise on mossy stile

Even the road signposts were showing signs of too much rain over the years:

Beetham road sign

We had a short walk on the road before crossing fields and negotiating a traditional squeeze stile:

Bichon Frise in a squeeze stile

Then we had to climb over a stone stile (lots of variety on this walk!). Sherlock needed assistance to get up on this one:

Bichon Frise on stone stile

We passed a farm with a traditional border Peel tower built to protect them from marauding Scots:

Peel tower

Then it was up an old coffin trail towards Beetham and the Fairy Steps. As I was playing Pokemon Go I couldn't resist snapping a Clefairy on this path:

Clefairy pokemon and Bichon Frise

Then we got the Fairy Steps themselves which cut through a limestone escarpement:

Fairy Steps information board

Apparently if you can climb them without touching the sides then you will see a fairy:

Fairy Steps, Cumbria

I had the job of assisting Sherlock up as some of the steps were rather large for little legs:

It is a bit of a tight squeeze getting and only my super skinny son found it easy:

Fairy Steps, Cumbria

Somehow we took the wrong turn at this lovely way marker. We should have gone towards Cockshot Lane and not Beetham (added 2.5 miles to our walk!):

footpath marker

If we hadn't been tired, and the pub was open, it would have been a lovely pitstop:

Beetham post office

We also had to walk long the, luckily not busy, A6. It was reassuring to see this milestone:

A6 milestone Milnthorpe

Looking the other way it did make me say "Ooh that's a half marathon...". Wonder when I'll get back to this distance again:

Lancaster milestone A6

We passed the Dallam Tower deer park along the Bela. It was full of swans and we did spot deer (just not close enough to photograph):

swans on Bela by Dallam Tower deer park

Finally we got back to Milnthorpe and were relieved to get back to our car!

Milnthorpe sign

A beautiful walk in some lovely locations.

2 comments:

  1. What a lovely collection of photos. Looks like a lovely place to visit and walk around x

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