Monday 5th October 2026

Our final walk for this trip and we decided to go for a biggie – the 16 mile circuit of Walney Island. If you fancy a 6 hour ramble this could be the one for you – it’s easy going terrain and incredibly varied – just very long!

We caught an early train to Barrow in Furness and physically prepared ourselves with a Wetherspoons Full English breakfast before getting the bus to Jubilee Bridge – the gateway to Walney Island. Another overcast day sadly and the weather forecast predicted high winds and rain later so we’d come prepared with warm coats and hats.

We walked through the residential area of Walney to start with and then this led to a long stretch of National Speed Limit road where we were doing our usual thing of balancing at the edge – it wasn’t too busy though so all good. But 5 miles of this felt a tad tedious – our only views being the mud flats and Piel Castle. We didn’t get to Piel Island but an interesting fact – it has a King – the current King is Aaron Sanderson, a former submarine electrician. The coronation involves sitting in an ancient chair while wearing a helmet, holding a sword, and having beer poured over his head! Now that would have been worth watching.

We could hear the sound of the waves long before we reached the South End but it was fabulous to reach this long beach section of the island. It was quite a varied selection of path – promenade concrete, farm fields, shingle beach, sand, wide open cliff top paths and narrow close to the edge paths too. We realised at one point that we’d got onto the wrong side of the fence as we neared a very large herd of cows, so we scrambled under the barbed wire fence to the other side. Lucky we did as they were exceptionally inquisitive even with a fence between us and we were only inches away on a fairly narrow path, plus it was pretty muddy their side.

By the time we reached Walney Island Beach with its vast stretches of sand, the sun had started to shine and we began to have hope that we weren’t going to get a soaking. Big coat and hat not needed anymore.

We stopped at 10 miles to have some lunch and became hopeful with some very lovely concrete paths and cycle way signs, thought this might take us all the way, but no. We think we could have saved ourselves a fair few miles if we’d cut inland but we stayed faithful to the Coastal Path signs and not only circumnavigated the airfield but also took in the North Walney Nature Reserve which to be truthful was not the most inspiring. Once out of that area we walked through some woodland, then across a few more farm fields and back into civilisation.

And then it was just another two miles or so to get back to Jubilee Bridge – those final miles are always the hardest and the last week of walking was definitely catching up on us.  As I was having a weary little sigh, Steve chose to tell me (jokingly) that it’s so much harder for him because as well as walking, he has to keep us on course, he has to carry the rucksack and he has to take the photos!  Boy was I chuffed later when Strava revealed that over the same distance, I had done 3,000 more steps than Steve – it’s SO much harder for me!!  Felt great to finish it though and we clocked up just over 16 miles.  And not a drop of rain.

Saturday 3rd October 2026

I know it’s Cumbria but boy have we climbed a few hills today, I can laugh now that I’m relaxing on the sofa blogging, but it was painful at times.

Our Saturday of course had started with a parkrun and getting to the local Lancaster one involved a mile walk to the very picturesque Williamson Park – UPHILL. And, although we appreciated the beauty of the park with its monuments and its stunning views over Lancaster, the run was hugely hilly with a lot of trail thrown in. We dragged ourselves around, as you do, and as always, the other runners and organisers were a friendly bunch. Then it was time for the mile walk back – this time DOWNHILL.

So just the 5 miles of exercise completed before we had breakfast and caught the train to Grange Over Sands for todays coastal walk. Steve had been trying to plot a route between Grange Over Sands and Ulverston but the usual blog guide we follow warned us against attempting it as it involves a major road with no pavements. It seemed that we could get as far as Cark easy enough so this short walk seemed perfect for the afternoon.

A scenic promenade was our first section of path, and being a Saturday was well populated with walkers. We enjoyed the ease. This eventually led us on to a quiet road, then some muddy lanes (a huge puddle provided us with wet feet for the day), a path running alongside the railway and into the village of Kents Bank. Some very beautiful houses here and we were saying how lucky they were to be so remote and yet have their own railway station. Then we had to tackle a humungous HILL and I’m not exaggerating … it was both steep and long, you needed a good set of lungs to get to the top. Not another walker in sight – funny that! Still following our OS app, we literally turned a corner and then were guided down ‘Jack Hill,’ and incredibly steep descent – the type that pulls on your calf muscles.

At the bottom of the hill there was a little cluster of very grand but rustic looking houses and they clearly weren’t keen on ramblers as there were “Private’ signs everywhere, and a lot of barking dogs, guarding said properties. But we had it on good authority, from our OS app, that there was a Public Footpath somewhere – but finding it was a little tricky. We tried several paths through a wooded area, back tracking each time, before Steve spotted the narrowest of passageways with a hidden Public Footpath sign … and we got back on our way.

The next section was across a couple of farm fields, rather boggy and knobbly fields I’m afraid, no path laid out particularly … long wet grass. And to my delight, a herd of inquisitive cows – as always I got anxious as they moved towards us … and as always Steve managed to shoo them away using his long limbs and loud voice to let them know that we didn’t have anything for them and we didn’t particularly want them following us. Yet another stampede avoided!!

From there we got onto a lovely flat tarmac lane and we hopefully had our destination in sight. We were near an airfield and saw a lot of parachute activity and then some low flying planes which proved exciting. We had hope of finding an embankment wall which seemed to be indicated on the map, but no such luck. We had to make another u-turn and back track our way down the long road that took us into Cark. Just nearing the village we stumbled across a cafe and treated ourselves to coffee and meat pies as recommended by the lovely lady running it. From there it was the final UPHILL trek to the railway station … and we had covered a further 6 miles of the coastline.

Despite the hills it was a fabulous day (Parkrun + Coastal Walk = 11 miles) but I can certainly feel it in my legs tonight. And you know we’ll be back for more tomorrow – there’s no stopping these Rambling Roses. xx

Thursday 1st October 2026

Today’s plan was to walk from Ulverston to Barrow in Furness. As has been the case, there is no indication on the Ordnance Survey app of an official King Charles III coastal path on this section so, once more, Steve had picked out a potential route to get us from A to B, hopefully being able to walk a little nearer to the coastline today. We knew it was going to be a long walk but we had no idea what to expect in terms of path – we had plan Bs in place i.e. turn back/bus or uber!! Yet again the sun was shining down on us – can’t believe it’s October – so we were all set to give it a good try.

First off it was the train to Ulverston which is a beautifully scenic ride – highly recommend it. The walk started through the local streets of Ulverston and then on to a more major road – there were pavements though so all was good and this went on for a good few miles. It was almost like being in that glorious Cumbria countryside again as the views to our left were rolling green hills, farmhouses and flocks of sheep – it was just that we had frantic A5087 running alongside us to the left.

At just over 3 miles, this road led us to a scenic waterfront with a well positioned cafe. A little early to take a break I know but we make the rules up as we go along … and cappuccino and chocolate brownie were so required, and enjoyed. This put a spring in our step and it was fabulous to be walking on a well provided shoreline path. Then the most crazy thing happened – we turned a corner and there to greet us was a very fresh looking wooden King Charles III Coast Path sign, just when you least expect it. Well, it was like snuggling into a comfort blanket, just feeling familiar and knowing that we were going to be led safely to our destination.

From here we were led into ‘Sea Wood’ and, as it says on the tin, it was a wood at the seaside. A very historical wood at that, it was once owned by Lady Jane Grey in the 1500s and was used to supply timber to the local mines and shipbuilding. It was pretty to walk through albeit a little slippery in places – I nearly pulled Steve over when he was helping me down a slope.

So we gaily followed this new official path – all the signposts, steps and kissing gates were lovely new wood – taking us on a variety of terrain … estuary path, shingle beaches, farm fields and some roadside. We did take a little diversion off the road at one point to get some respite from the traffic noise. Steve tried to come to the rescue of a poor sheep that had got wire wrapped around its legs. He wasn’t able to get the wire off so we knocked on a few doors in the nearby village of Aldingham but no-one was in. We finally passed a couple of walkers who offered to notify the local farmer. Hope he’s OK.

We returned to the path on the main Coast Road and then were signposted down to a beach and the sand was perfect for walking on. Always love being this close to the water. However, the tide was coming in and the beach was getting narrower and more rocky – just got a tad anxious about these unusual Morecambe Bay tides. We kept looking out for signs to take us back up but there was just a bank of greenish rocks between us and the higher ground. As the beach became less accessible, we made the decision to scrabble up said rocks. Rock climbing has never been my thing so I was on all fours! And there at the top was a perfect tarmac path – goodness knows how much of that we’d missed and where the sign had been.

We picked up the official signs again and from here it was a completely straightforward walk into Barrow in Furness. Such a contrast to the countryside views of the last few days but interesting in its industrial skyline. From the long seawall path we could see Piel Island, Walney Island and the Barrow shipyard. We took the opportunity to video call our lovely friend Glynis who is a ‘Barrow girl’ and she chatted to us all about her hometown as walked around Cavendish Dock into the centre. We stopped our garmins at this point and we had clocked up 15 miles. We were chuffed with ourselves.

We were relieved to have completed what started as an unknown section, and even more thrilled that King Charles had made such a welcome reappearance. But Steve was even more excited when we got to the station to find a statue of one of his all time heros – Emlyn Hughes – another local … almost as famous as Glynis!