Today could not be more different from yesterday – we open the curtains to a blazing sun in a brilliant blue sky and according to the weather forecast this will continue all day. Hooray!

Finding a place to park in Greenodd proves difficult but we eventually find a church carpark which is completely empty. After fussing around checking boots and bags we set off left and up the hill to join a minor road going south, which avoids the busy A5092. On the way we pass a handsome monkey puzzle tree reaching for the clouds – you don’t see many of these around.

The road we’re on is blessedly quiet and runs through rolling fields and well kept farms – easy walking.

After joining the main road for a short while, we are directed up a steep path through an area marked as Arrad Foot on the map.

The narrow path is quite overgrown and slightly mysterious. We are climbing up one side of a gully from which unexpected plants and bushes appear. Magnolia, rhododendron and camellia bushes make an appearance – it’s almost as if they have been deliberately planted, maybe once part of a larger landscaped garden nearby.

Further on the path seems to run through somebody’s front garden – the ramshackle house off to the right looks occupied although there’s no-one around. I don’t like to take a picture.

The path now becomes a tarmac lane which will shortly throw us out onto the main road again, but there are some great views over the fields from the top, over to the waters of the estuary.

We reach the very busy dual carriageway and heart in mouth I dash across four lanes of traffic to reach the relative safety of the grass verge. From here it is only a short walk until we turn off left down a minor road in the direction of Plumpton Cottage Farm, where I’m hoping we can find a disused railway line to take us down to Plumpton Hall and the beginning of the Ulverston Canal.

BEST LAID PLANS………………….the railway line is now completely overgrown and farmers have inched their field fences further to make it impossible to find the track, never mind follow it. You can see the line of tress which mark where the embankments used to be. We stop to talk to a farmer who tells us that further north ie. behind us, the old railway tracks have been removed and the path maintained to provide a popular walk for local people. BUT NOT HERE. Oh well.

Back we go, retracing our steps to the main road, where it’s head down to the next turn off left to take us down to Moss Nook. Off to the right and high up on Hoad Hill, stands what I first take to be a lighthouse – but so far inland? I later discover that this is a monument to Sir John Barrow, an Ulverston man who is best known for his career as a geographer, linguist and writer and a distinguished member of the Admiralty from 1804 to 1845.

About a mile down the road we cross the railway line on a stone bridge and pass what I’ve been told are the characteristic Cumbrian chimneys of Plumpton Hall – a Grade II listed building.

It is now time for lunch and we couldn’t have chosen a better spot. We leave the footpath that runs behind the foreshore and pick our way over the pebbles to sit right by the water, from where we can sit and watch the toy trains trundle across the Leven Viaduct.

It is so quiet and peaceful here, the only sounds are the lapping of the water against the shore and occasional quack from a husband and wife team of ducks, hoping they can clear up our crumbs.

But we must move on, so packing up our things we return to the path which runs along the shore all the way down to the beginning of Ulverston Canal.

The lock here is now sealed with a concrete dam and a footbridge, but up until the 1940s the canal was in frequent use to carry goods unloaded from seagoing vessels up to the wharves of Ulverston. It doesn’t look too healthy.

We carry on, but as it looks impossible to continue following the bank we are diverted up a minor road, past a tightly guarded pharmaceutical plant owned by GlaxoSmithKline. At the roundabout we escape the road onto a lane which runs into a footpath taking us back to the shore.

From here it is a lovely walk on a red earth track through woodlands, the trees providing welcome shade from what is now a very hot sun (in April!). In the woods off to the right lies Conishead Priory, which has been through several different incarnations since the original priory was home to Augustinian monks in the 12th century. From a luxury hotel, hospital and nursing home the priory is now occupied by various Buddhist communities who have built a splendid temple in the grounds.

As we didn’t get to see the temple, here is a Google photograph – the Kadampa Buddhist Temple. They do allow Joe Public to have a look around and participate in a guided meditation, and they have a cafe. Having been an intermittent meditator for several years maybe I’ll come back one day.

Our walk continues along the shore………………………

Until it’s time to turn inland and head for Bardsea.

On the way up to the village we pass the church in its prominent position on the hill overlooking Morecambe Bay.

We could visit but an ice cold beer at The Ship Inn wins out.

Distance: 10 miles