Looney along the Lune

Tuesday, 16 June 2009 20:18

We are enjoying some wonderful weather on the Lancaster Canal - it has so far paid off to come North for the spring and summer, as the boaters down south seem to be having lousy weather!

I packed a picnic and we set off to walk the Lune Millennium Path upstream towards the Lune Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal. If that sounds confusing - the River Lune is the reason that Lancaster exists and the Canal was a latecomer to the commerce here!

We joined the path at the Millennium Bridge which crosses the River to take walkers and cyclists to Morecambe. We turned right at the bridge without crossing it. The path took us towards Greyhound Road Bridge and then on to Skerton Bridge.

Lancaster from beyond Greyhound Road bridge

Skerton Bridge

Yes, the tide was out - and the river has mud banks!

After Skerton Bridge the Path goes away from the river and we were rather disappointed that we could not get to see it. It was a cyclists path not a walkers path - I suppose the money dictated the type of path! We were just getting fed up with the smooth tarmac and very wooded edges when we saw a track off into the woods towards the river. This led us down to Skerton Weir

The Canoeists were having a great time!

We found a perch and sat and watched them whilst we ate our lunch.

The Path then skirts Lansil Industrial Estate on the right and the Lune Aqueduct can be glimpsed through the trees. There is an old viewing platform approached by a unmarked path. The trees obscure a really good view of the aqueduct though.

A few yards further is a new platform - more sturdy and a better view!

We walked under the aqueduct avoiding the few spots of canal water dripping from the arch and found another little overgrown path to take a photo of the aqueduct from the other side!

Looking downstream

It looked as if there was a path along the river on the opposite bank, so we retraced our steps a bit and went up the "Jacob's ladder" of steps to the Lancaster Canal as it crosses the aqueduct!

Steps up to canal, Fi takes a breather!

We walked along the aqueduct and down the other side - the steps here were older and not so steep!

Once on the other side we could see the path along the bank

It took us by the river and we caught glimpses of it through the trees on the bank! John scrambled down onto a landing stage to get this photo looking back at the Lune aqueduct.

Looking back (again)

Suddenly the path opened out and we found ourselves at Halton Training Camp for the MOD. Some bits were fenced off but it was obvious that we could walk through, passing the firing range and all the various boat launch sites. At the end of this section a track continues the path up to the Halton Road just before the M6 bridge across the Lune.

We walked into Halton to catch the bus back to Lancaster. On the way we had a look at St Wilfrid's Church - well the porch anyway, as it was locked! They have swallows nesting in the porch so the floor is protected at strategic spots by bits of cardboard!

St Wilfrid's Church

The bus stop was before the village centre, so we did not explore further, in case we missed the next bus! It duly arrived and we had a pleasant journey back into Lancaster.

Lune aqueduct from bus as we went over Halton Road Bridge 108

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