Midge Walkers

Walk  No. 102

Catterall Circular

It was a warm sunny day when we met at Catterall Village Hall. Only six walkers, but that may have been partly because Christian Aid high jacked our date for their own sponsored walk. With more notice, I am sure we could have made other arrangements. As we set off, it was noticed that all the local hills were standing out against the vivid blue sky.

I had been suspicious when Rodney had not commented on styles in his invitation to the walk and as we set off we quickly encountered a style, but Rodney said it was only a step-over, so OK, the count is still zero, but we quickly encountered two proper styles to get this walk underway. Very soon , we passed Dew Ley Farm, which is a cheese making farm visited only a few days earlier by Prince Charles. As we walked on, we came across a ruined castle. A little Google research told us that this was Greenhalgh Castle built around 1690. The next part of the walk took us through some rather wet fields and to a disused railway line which afforded us some seating where we had lunch.

Suitably fattened up, we proceeded to try and lose a few of those added pounds and made our way along the railway cutting and out onto the Wyre Flood Plains. We inspected the new flood gates that had been built in order to try and prevent future flooding. The walk then became very muddy but we emerged safely at the other end where we crossed a road and walked along a canal and then climbed up to the Wyre Aqueduct which was built in 1797 by Thomas Telford. A new housing estate being built forced us into a small detour but took us non the less to Churchtown where we visited the 15th century Church. A final coffee stop was made before setting off again on our push back to Catterall

After not being warned about how many styles there would be, I counted eleven but they were all managed quite ably by all six walkers. It was agreed that the 7 miles, done at a very leisurely pace, had been another excellent day out. Thanks once again Rodney