Total Distance: 10 Km or 6 miles
Time: 2½ - 3 hours
Terrain: Mainly easy with a short climb to a viewpoint. Woodland and coastal walking.

Map

Start:
National Trust car park at Eaves Wood, Park Road, Silverdale. Exit 35 M6. Join A6 northbound. Keep on A6 for a little over two miles. Turn left into Nineteen Acre Lane opposite sign for Cinderbarrow Car Park. At junction turn right into Silverdale Road. Follow Storrs Lane past Leighton Moss RSPB reserve to reach T junction. Turn right. Pass station on right. As the road leads round bend to left, turn left into Park Road. The car park is on the right.

1. Car Park to Silverdale by Hawes Water. (5 Km or 3 miles: 1 hour 45 minutes )

From car park step back into the lane and turn left. [With a path from the car park leading into Eaves Wood this may seem counter-intuitive but the mysteries of Eaves Wood are merely postponed – not cancelled.] At junction keep ahead and follow road as it bends to right and then turn left into Moss Lane.



At the end of Moss Lane you reach a gate. Go through to enter Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve, passing Hawes Water on your left.



At various points wooden causeways have been built to assist walkers and keep them dry shod. The path here is well maintained. At a junction of paths on the north side of the lake, turn left across a stream.



At the next junction turn left onto a bridleway.



This will bring you to Ford Lane.



[Alternatively a permissive path indicated by a sign on the left avoids the 500m of road walking by going across pastures.] Turn left onto Ford Lane, close by sign for Silverdale. Past Challon Hall take a footpath across a stone stile on the right of the road. On reaching a lane turn right, then exercising great care cross the railway to reach Waterslack.



The route weaves its way through a complex of buildings close by a well known garden centre, (refreshments available in café) before reaching Eaves Wood.



There are probably many ways through the wood but for simplicity sake keep to the main track. Soon you will encounter recently emplaced way marked signs indicating directions to the car park, the Pepperpot and the Cove.



Your objective is the Cove, but a diversion to a viewpoint next to the Pepperpot is worth every effort. (The Pepperpot is a stone monument built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee).



Should you visit it retrace your steps to a junction of paths where a signpost will put you on track for the Cove. A short distance on the track divides. Here take the left fork and quickly you reach the cottages of Elmslack. Across the lane look for a footpath sign and follow it as it threads its way past some impressive properties to reach Cove Road.



Turn right. At the next junction turn left and you may not be surprised to reach a cove after a short while.



You have reached Morecambe Bay. When the tide is out you may find the sands inviting, but straying out onto them  is not advised; innocent looking pools can contain quick sand, while the speed of an incoming tide has caught out many an unwary traveller as the graveyards of Heysham and Cartmel attest. Enjoy the view from the safety of the shore. Incidentally you are at the end or start of the Lancashire Coastal Way.
Follow it south with the bay on your right to reach Shore Road which leads into the village with the Silverdale Hotel on the left. (When the tide is in take the footpath across two large pastures to reach Shore Road with the hotel on your right)

2. Silverdale to Car Park (5 Km or 3 miles: 1½  hours)

From Shore Road walk up towards the village and turn right into Lindeth Road. After 600m (10minutes) the road swings to the left into Hollins Lane taking the Coastal Way with it.



Here go ahead onto a narrower lane that soon passes Lindeth Tower and its literary associations to bring you to the coast after another 10 minute walk.



Pass Jenny Brown’s Point on your right. The lane ends at Brown’s House.



Follow the path as is hugs the shore across a confusion of boulders, then mud flats and then seagrass. In another 10 minutes cross the Coastal Way to enter woodland. Follow this path for 800m when you reach Hollins Lane. Turn right and then left into Slackwood Lane. At the next junction turn right into Bottoms Lane. At 150m take a track on the right.



Follow this through woodland as it takes a sharp bend to the left.



Soon after reaching  Lambert’s Meadow, turn right across a footbridge to follow the path to a gate.[Note: After prolonged wet weather this path may be submerged. Take a wide diversion to reach the gate.] The path, with the help of steps,  climbs up a small escarpment and will bring you to a lane called The Row. Turn left and soon you will come to Park Road with the car park directly ahead.

Silverdale Hotel

Silverdale is a most picturesque village and the Silverdale Hotel (built as a coaching inn in 1836) fits in perfectly. It is a very busy place in the summer and on a nice day not only the hotel but the large beer garden can be heaving. It is quieter as you might expect in winter but the menu was still extensive, the fare very nice and the service both efficient and friendly.
On this occasion we had a home made burger with a side portion of chips and a hot steak and onion barm with a side portion of chips.
The hotel itself has various side rooms as well as a large conservatory and a restaurant room.




They serve 3 cask ales, Marstons Pedigree (4.5%) and 2 guest ales (which on our visit were being sold at £1.80 per pint!). On this occasion the guest ales were Thwaites Lancaster Bomber(4.4%) and Marstons Wicked Witch (4.6%). All 3 beers could be described as premium beers. We tend to prefer beers with a lower specific gravity but we opted for the Wicked Witch  which was a smooth premium ale served to us in good condition. Not a session beer but enjoyable with ones lunch.
This was our second visit to the Silverdale Hotel but will not be our last!