Weekend Away ~ South Cumbria.

When people think of the Southern Lake District, perhaps they think of Windermere, Amblesde and Grasmere. I love those places but it’s nice to escape to a less touristy part of Lakeland too. I did just that a couple of weeks ago , when Wil booked us a weekend away in Grange-Over-Sands.

Grange – Over – Sands is a peaceful town, somewhere to stay if you really just want to relax and take life slowly. Without Mr Hugo ( our bouncy black Labrador was on his own little holiday) ,we planned a quiet time. Grange is on the coast , but I don’t think I’ve ever seen much sand. Salt Marsh stretches out towards Morecambe Bay , far into the distance.

Grange~over~sands.

Twinkly lights of Grange.

Grange Plant Centre is a handy little place for plants, pots and gifts. Grange Plant Centre.

Salt Marsh.

The promenade.

Whilst in Grange we had bracing walks along the promenade ( Winter Woolies were needed) , looked for Christmas presents, ate out once in a bay view bistro, once in a little Indian restaurant ( take your own booze) and we also had a couple of drinks in the towns two pubs.

The Estuary Bistro is a nice place to dine on Main Street.

Chocolate Heaven in Choco – Lori on Main Street. This Chocolate Shop is also a Chocolate Bar and Chocolate Cafe!

Chocolate Martini.

A toasty fire in The Keg & Kitchen Sports Bar.

Our accomodation for the weekend was in a lovely B&B on the outskirts of town. Wil had found us a room at Corner Beech House , which was such a relaxing and homely place to stay. The interiors were bright and fresh, the owners were friendly and helpful and the breakfasts were delicious. Not bad considering the couple who run it had only been doing so for 3 weeks!

Corner Beech House.

Loved our sea view.

Bright and fresh room.

Breakfast Room.

On our way to Grange-Over-Sands , we had dropped into RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve at Silverdale. I had dragged Wil around looking for a Winter Visitor, Bearded Tits. These darling little birds can be seen amongst the reeds or pecking at grit ( it aids their digestion) from the specially provided trays. Unfortunately they were a no show for us, though we did see a Marsh Harrier hunting over the water.

Reeds provide a home for Bearded Tits.

An obliging comerant.

The inland village of Cartmel is not to far from Grange, so we bobbed there on the Saturday morning for a little look around. Cartmel is famous for its race course, it’s priory, it’s rather nice restaurants and it’s Sticky Toffee Pudding.

The Village Store is the home of Cartmels famous Sticky Toffee Pudding and other good stuff.

Bridge over the river Eea.

A 17th century pub.

Norman Priory.

Another lovely pub.

Delicious Apple & Parsnip Soup in The Square.

I loved this gifts and interiors shop.

Cartmel is home to The Friesian Experience , you can actually pay to have a sleepover with these gorgeous black horses.

On Sunday we said our goodbyes to South Cumbria, though not before calling at Levens Hall Deer Park for a Riverside walk, sadly the hall and grounds themselves are closed over Winter. We caught a glimpse of the parks herd of Dark Fallow Deer , though missed out on seeing the local Bagot Goats.

Gnarly trees.

Dark Fallow Deer females.

All in all we had a very relaxed weekend , though we were certainly happy to be reunited with a certain black Labrador. 😁

Camping in Silverdale :)

Ooooh I definatly need a little bit of sunshine. It is sooo grey out there and at times like these I wonder what can I possibly write about? So I thought I would go back in time and tell you about a lovely chilled camping trip we went on in May last year. I really love the sea side so I thought I would try and find a camp site on our own Lancashire coastline. The camping criteria with us is almost always somewhere that is dog friendly, in beautiful countryside and within walking distance of a pub. 🙂 We found the perfect place! ‘Gibralter Farm’ in Silverdale.

The very name ‘Gibralter Farm’ conjours up warm sunshiney days and we were in luck! The campsite is situated on a working farm in the heart of the Silverdale and Arnside Area of Outstanding Natural beauty with gorgeous views over Morecambe Bay. We pitched our tent in the lower left field which is adjacent to a little wooded area where you can camp too.
There are lots of footpaths from the site and if you wander through the woodland there is a perfect little cove where we saw Oyster catchers and Shelduck. Ok I was more excited about the birdlife than my other half but yes I am a bit of a bird nerd!

A little cove.

Windswept tree.

Even he was impressed that Gibralter Farm has its own resident Green Woodpecker. I spent a lot of time trying to capture its vivid colours on camera but the best I could manage was this siluette shot.

Green Woodpecker.

We wandered into the village of Silverdale a couple of times. It has a convenience store,a butchers, tearooms, an Indian restaurant and two pubs ‘The Royal Hotel’ and ‘The Woodlands.’ If you like your real ales and somewhere a little different try ‘The Woodlands'( If you can find it!) which is run by the villagers in an old manor house.It is kind of a bizarre place which also had a pop up victorian tearooms in one of the downstairs rooms when we visited. 🙂
We also had lunch at ‘The Wolf House Gallery ‘ across the road from Gibralter Farm.It was a little expensive but the food was good.

Silverdale itself is in Lancashire and neighboring Arnside only two miles up the road is in Cumbria.Both are well worth a visit. Arnside is a pretty village facing the estuary with a tiny promenade of cafes and gift shops.We took our dog Jake here for some walks on the beach and he made friends with a local dog. 🙂

Arnside Estuary.

Sat outside the Fighting Cocks with views over to Morecambe Bay.

If you love your wildlife make sure you take a walk round the RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve where you can see all sorts of water fowl in the reeds. Unfortunately as we had Jake there were not to many areas we could take a dog.There is one public walkway where you can walk the hound,on a lead of course.

Tufted Duck in the Reeds.

And a stay here is not complete without sampling the local delicacy ‘Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimps’ which are caught in the shallow waters of the bay. We tried some in the nearby seaside town of Grange Over Sands.

Gibralter Farm Campsite.

Hopefully we will try and head to Gibralter Farm again this year for a nice relaxing camping trip by the sea. 🙂