Lancashire’s nice seaside resorts had been constructed near mill cities, mining cities, cities and soot. Railways siphoned the sun-starved to the resorts, which grew and grew, till they regarded a bit just like the locations the daytrippers and Wakes weekers had been attempting to flee.
That’s why Hest Financial institution, north of Morecambe, is particular. It’s scenic. It feels virtually pastoral. It’s small and tranquil. And it has a namesake pub that mixes the salty air and massive skies of the foreshore with a comfy, village high quality. Individuals from throughout Lonsdale come right here for lunches and beer-garden periods.
It is usually properly value a stroll and this one, from Lancaster to the littoral, is as simple as a donkey-ride.
![Lancaster Castle.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4e4b92f0df3c924995f407b5d7e0b1e5056780cc/0_264_5433_3260/master/5433.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=e7dd55eeaac7e6b5697f79ce74fbbdef)
I begin highish up, at Lancaster Castle, overlooking the medieval core of this metropolis. It’s a forbidding constructing that accentuates the hilly location; topography is likely one of the causes the Romans got here – they may survey the coast for enemies as they marched north. Three successive Roman forts supplied the foundations for the later Norman fort. It was heightened and strengthened through the center ages, and was the symbolic powerbase of John O’Gaunt, duke of Lancaster – uncle of Richard II, father of Henry IV (and 13 different babes/bastards) and grandfather of Henry V. The fort functioned as jail and courtroom, offering dungeon and gruel for the Pendle witches, Quakers founder George Fox, Peterloo speaker Henry “Orator” Hunt and the Birmingham Six. The jail closed solely in 2011.
![A view of Lancaster from the Castle.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/27a97ee2a2fa589fd477e3f6308adff26549b08c/467_280_4966_2980/master/4966.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=71596971fc136af84f25e8bb4547e94c)
Lancaster is stuffed with steep lanes and streets, all the best way as much as the Ashton Memorial – a domed mega-folly that you would be able to see from virtually anyplace across the metropolis. However my stroll takes me all the way down to the Lune, the place a foot and bike path – initially scruffy and litter-strewn however fast-improving – follows the river to the Lune Aqueduct. Accomplished in 1797, it’s, like a lot in Lancaster, constructed from ashlar sandstone, austere and gloomy. Right here I climb – the one ascent of the day – a staircase to move west alongside the towpath of the Lancaster Canal.
![Lancaster Canal at Hest Bank](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/79e41521ceaf2f5cfbc518195e9c19ba23ab2ada/0_182_5315_3189/master/5315.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=8d845651564769a5ab95ae79f586c359)
Canal strolling is a curious pastime. Being flat, it’s hardly extra of an effort than sitting. However, even at a leisurely stroll you end up passing narrowboats. Plus, the dearth of any must navigate or assume means you may survey your environment; I haven’t Googled any twitcher web sites so shan’t make idle guarantees of uncommon raptors or stray flamingos, however I can affirm that the canal, which after the aqueduct cuts via a swathe of inexperienced belt, was joyously noisy with thrushes, finches, blackbirds and swallows, and I did see a lanky gray heron take off when disturbed by a barge. Not like another canals, the Lancaster is wooded and bushy-hedged, which makes the stroll very nice; the tree cover additionally retains the rain off, so you may watch the drizzle dance on the canal whereas protecting dry.
As a south Lancastrian, I’d all the time considered Lancaster as a considerably effete and scholarly place, probably not northern or absolutely of the county. However the metropolis has, and retains, various business. Warehouses and recycling vegetation soiled the banks of the Lune, and the canal is named the “black and white”, in reference to the coal it shipped from Preston and the limestone quarried on the Kendal finish.
![Morecambe Bay with the Lake District fells in the distance.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1ca55695942b99f893434102a36c99ccdf56e9a3/0_138_5315_3189/master/5315.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=edbad0fff2faaaaf251afd6ef19a08ff)
As I strategy the coast, I start to glimpse mountain tops and a watery horizon. At all times a beautiful second, the feeling of arriving at a seaside, it’s significantly fantastic – and a tad surreal – whereas strolling beside a canal. These waterways, in any case, had been primarily inland affairs, pretend rivers to ease the movement of products. A number of semis spring up after which a small marina – barge holidays appear to be all the fad – after which I see a street all the way down to the shore. That is Hest Financial institution, the place, and it have to be a fairly pretty one to dwell in, with the canal on the high of the road and Morecambe Bay on the backside. The tide is low, and the sandflats are a swirl of sunshine and shadow.
I resist the atavistic pull of the promenade and go into the pub for a pint.
Sitting down for the primary time in three hours – there aren’t as many benches alongside the canal as there may be – I calm down, lean again, browse a menu, mirror on the actual fact it’s Sunday, and order. It’s determined: I received’t stroll all the best way again. However after my roast dinner I do go down the road and comply with the pebbly seaside, after which the hardtop promenade, all the best way to Morecambe station. Extra flatness, extra water, extra birds – and distant Helvellyn and a westering solar welcoming me to the seafront and waves of recollections.
Google map of the route
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Begin Lancaster Citadel
Distance 8 miles
Time 4 hours
Whole ascent 140 metres
Problem Simple
GPX map explore.osmaps.com
The pub
![The Hest Bank is a traditional local, says our author.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b3dd44835a179bc4ad05151c5dc7f4e3b850070d/0_187_5315_3189/master/5315.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=a2e9727631decfa1bce793d302840bc7)
There’s most likely been a pub at this website because the twelfth century, greeting monks arriving over the sands from the Furness peninsula with mead and cockfights. The current Hest Bank is especially a Nineteenth-century teaching inn, with numerous lounges over a number of ranges and a big beer backyard. There are tasty roasts on Sundays, pies and seasonal requirements (cod loin, lamb steak) on different days, and tacos and Thai meals too. A grazing platter combines the Lancastrian (pork pie, black pudding bites) with the Louisianan (southern-fried rooster strips). Of the three actual ales on faucet – Farmers Blonde, Breaker pale ale and Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker – the latter, for me, displays the pub most precisely: it’s a no-nonsense, very conventional native, with useful, chatty employees. The horseshoe formed bar is as good as any of the extra furnished rooms, and is brightly lit, ethereal and feels extra pubby.
![Hest Bank](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/201a532af007f62a8c769935c00d0a89bc7b5c2a/0_228_5315_3189/master/5315.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=47da5b261704c305f416cfff5ce4f591)
The place to remain
The seaside is awash with “basic” B&Bs and you may ebook into a trendy room on the artwork deco Midland, however a fresh-faced, fair-priced different, inland, is Lancaster Barn. Because the title suggests, the resort is a stone-built rural constructing. It’s six miles outdoors town, however inside is a cleanly designed, pale-wood and white-linen inside – with Hypnos beds and espresso machines. A Mediterranean breakfast, domestically sourced supper grub and British fizz full the image. Previously a pub, a put up workplace, and an precise barn, that is a lovely recycling of a historic website.
Double rooms B&B from £141