Warton Crag and Gait Barrows

Saturday 28th April 2018

For the last ten years I have been going to Scotland for two weeks at the end of May, but this year I decided that I would go to the Lake District instead, and a month earlier at the end of April. I have been to the Lake District many times before, but never for two whole weeks so I was really looking forward to this holiday, but I was not starting in the Lake District, rather just outside in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. I got off the train in Carnforth and immediately I could see my first objective, Warton Crag, which dominates the view from the town. The weather was astonishingly sunny considering the rain that had accompanied me as I left home so I was happy as I walked beside the road towards Warton eventually turning off into fields where I promptly got confused. The layout of the fields didn’t match what was on my map so it took me a while before I eventually reached the road above where I could already see extensive views across Morecombe Bay that would develop as I climbed further up the hill. Leaving the road I climbed through woodland sparsely populated by immature bluebells that had been delayed by the cold, late winter.

As I climbed I tried to pick a route through the maze of paths that headed straight up the hill regardless of the gradient and the occasional, brief, mild scrambling required in order to reach the top, and I loved every moment. Many wild flowers decorated the ascent with abundant displays of celandine, generous amounts of cowslip further up the hill and even the occasional early purple orchid and scatterings of primroses. This was a great walk climbing through bands of limestone and was a great sweetener to my fortnight in the Lake District. Eventually I reached the top of Warton Crag where I had tremendous views looking out over Morecombe Bay, but I had to turn my back on that as I continued north soon reaching a bridlepath that took me west gradually descending with the sound of gunshots to my right all the way down to a road that continued the descent to Crag Foot. Ramsons decorated the road side and in the small wood on my right, not far from the clay pigeon shooting range that I had heard earlier.

While the sun hid behind clouds I took a path through several fields and through a delightful wooded area where I had lunch sitting on a limestone outcrop before eventually reaching the edge of Hyning Scout Wood which is supposed to be good for bluebells, but clearly was not at the point where I was standing. Turning north through a field of celandines I headed into Deepdale Wood and later Cringlebarrow Wood following the path all the way to Yealand Sorrs as the sun came out once more. A wide track took me through the young woodland of Yealand Hall Allotment, but when I tried to head to Hawes Water I found my way blocked by felling operations. I was directed to follow the route of the logging trucks and was accompanied by an old gentleman who was also having to divert. After following the rutted tracks for a while we diverted off and headed up to an astonishing limestone pavement that was quite unlike anything that I had previous seen in the Yorkshire Dales. It was angled on a slope so that the grikes all ran parallel to each other down the slope and was for a tremendous sight.

I was in Gait Barrows Nature Reserve and it was a dramatic sight that benefited from the sunshine that had come out for me at this point showing me what I had been missing all these years by going straight past Arnside and Silverdale on my way to the Lake District. Landscape like this should not be missed, especially in spring when wild flowers are to be found in abundance. Primroses, cowslip and wood anemones displayed their wares for us as we wandered around the site until I finally parted company with the old man who had been my guide as I continued my journey north to Arnside. I soon reached my objective so I prolonged the walk by wandering around Dobshall Wood and Grubbins Wood that are near Arnside, but though they passed the time they didn’t satisfy what I had been looking for. My main goal on this walk had been to look for bluebells, but the only ones that I had saw were very immature, however there were many other wild flowers to be seen particularly in the nature reserves of Warton Crag and Gait Barrows. The good weather through this wildflower-rich limestone country made this a good walk through a tragically overlooked area.