Bridge

I headed over to Lancaster for the day to visit 19yo and to drop off some birthday gifts for the weekend. After a quick stop at his place, we walked up to Williamson Park and the Ashton Memorial café for lunch, followed by a visit to the butterfly house.

I thought I’d introduce him to one of my regular walks from the later years of the time that I’d lived here, but which I hadn’t done for 30+ years: out past the cemetery toward the former Moor Hospital, then following a lane past Lancaster Farms Prison, over the M6  and then down to the River Lune at Halton. It had rained a lot overnight, so it was a very puddly track, but we managed to negotiate our way through. A Buzzard joined us for part of the route and there were a smattering of Speckled Wood butterflies.

At Halton we paused to admire the river and this bridge from the slipway of the university boat club. The bridge has a fascinating history, having been cannibalised and constructed from another bridge further down stream; today it provides a single track road and cycle path which integrates well with the Lancaster cycle path system. We popped over to have a quick look at Halton

We followed the cycle path down the river to Lancaster Aqueduct, which carries the Lancaster Canal over the Lune (extra). We climbed up, crossed over and descended to the north bank of the river, following a path a further mile down stream to the Millennium footbridge. This was a path I hadn’t walked before, so it was nice that 19yo was also able to introduce me to a walk too. The river was very full, and the water was lapping at the edges of the path in a few places, but nothing like the markers for previous floods, which showed us that at times the water had been above our heads.

Back in town for another café stop, and then time for me to catch the train back. As always, it was good to spend the day with 19yo.