26 March, 2005

Cycle ride: Lancaster-Glasson Dock-Cockersands-Lancaster

Today's bike ride was quite straightforward, and stayed within the Lancaster area.  I've mislaid the note I made of the mileage, but it must have been about 20 miles (~32 km).

From home, I simply followed Ashton Road out to Conder Green, then on to Glasson Dock. After stopping to take a few photos, I crossed the northern part of the Lancashire coastal plain to Cockersand and the remains of its abbey. Despite the best efforts of a passer-by to direct me across open fields and a potentially submerged area of saltmarsh, the end of the road at Cockersand 'beach' was as far as I wanted to go by bike, so I followed the dry, non-muddy roads to Thurnham and hence back to Conder Green. From there, I returned home via the cycle track along the long-disused Glasson-Lancaster railway line.

Incidentally, I can't work whether it should be 'Cockersand' or 'Cockersands'. One previously unreliable source suggests it's the former for the abbey and the latter for the locality i.e. that Cockersand Abbey is in Cockersands. Still doubting, I've gone with the former throughout, but I don't know whether that's correct.