A packed day...

Having finished all our work, today was dedicated to enjoying the wildlife and scenery of the local area. Our first stop was Warton Crags, a nature reserve jointly run by the Local Authority, Wildlife Trust and RSPB. A gentle climb up to the crag tops afforded amazing views of Morecombe Bay. Although most of the limestone flowers were over we found several  plants of the very tiny and delicate spring sandwort still in bloom. Back at the car-park we were entertained by a pair of ravens and a peregrine falcon, which briefly had  a disagreement with a buzzard.

From there we paid a quick visit to Gait Barrows, where the last of the Broad-leaved Helleborines were still flowering, and we found a large patch of berrying Herb-paris. We then drove down through Morecombe (too busy for us) and on to the village of Heysham, which was a real gem. A pot of tea and toasted tea-cakes set us up for a walk along the cliffs at the edge of Morecombe Bay. Towards the end of our walk we found ourselves at the ruins of St.Patrick's chapel which is located on Heysham Head, an outcrop of sedimentary rock, including red sandstone, densely stratified and morained in various places and surrounded by boulder-clay, between the estuaries of the rivers Lune and Kent. The chapel, at the highest edge of the cliff, is well known for the rock-cut graves and/or ossuaries in its precinct. These are an example of "negative" rock-cutting - done with a view to the space the cutting will leave. Often said to be unique in the region, the cutting of tombs in "living rock" was a practice of early Christians of the near-east, perhaps introduced here in emulation of the desert fathers. These listed ancient monuments, perhaps the earliest Christian monument here, may have been designed from the outset to contain disarticulated bones. Two are straight-sided and four are body-shaped. All have socket-holes probably intended for timber crosses.

By the time we'd finished exploring, it was rush hour in Lancaster, so we decided to visit Sunderland Point, a tiny community at the end of a peninsula, only accessible at low tide by driving along a causeway sunk into the saltmarsh. Sunderland is unique in the United Kingdom as being the only community to be on the mainland and yet dependent upon tidal access. It was used as a port for slave ships and cotton ships but its importance declined as other ports such as Lancaster were opened up. It is of immense historical significance: the reputed landing place for the first bale of cotton in Britain; home to a grave with an inscription from 1796 that a life will be judged ‘not on a man’s colour but the worth of his heart’; and with many buildings from this time still to be found today. As well as being historically interesting, it is hauntingly beautiful, a place to sit and contemplate surrounded by glistening mud and the echoing calls of the curlew.