Day 142 Askam in Furness to Barrow in Furness

 

Date: Saturday 17^rd August 2013   Distance: 15.85 Miles

 

The weather forecast said it was going to be clear of rain by 3 pm though it wasn’t raining at home at all in the morning. After taking the grandchildren swimming we decided to go for it, after all we’d cycled in rain before so we took the bike in the car to Dalton in Furness, where we arrived in a deluge!

 

We visited Dalton Castle NT, a square tower with very enthusiastic guides of not a lot. There was a dungeon hole, latrine, some armour, a cannon and unusually a left- handed spiral staircase. It was still raining!

 

We sat in a lovely little cafe in the semi dark because of the cloud cover and said if it was still raining when we had done a bit of shopping in the supermarket then we would leave for Lancaster where we would be staying the night with our youngest son. Amazingly in the ten minutes we took to shop, the rain turned from full on to an occasional drip so we moved the car to the rail station and built the bike, eventually setting off at 4pm.

 

We set off up the hill out of the town and past the wildlife park. Water cascaded down the road as it drained off the fields. Luckily no cars passed when it was at its worst but we were in the low clouds which was making us wet. Our first port of call was Askam in Furness which is at the opposite end of the old bridleway across the sands from Millom, where we finished last time. It looked feasible as a route at low tide, even today but the map warned of danger as did the signs dotted about the area. A pier comprised of slag from the old steel industrial works juts out towards Millom. We thought the name Furness might have had something to do with the iron furnaces but it seems it relates to the Railway instead.

 

The picture is of a view across to Millom from Askam.

Askam is conjoined with the older village of Ireleth whose name is of Viking origin meaning hill-slope of the Irish. Wickipaedia says Roanhead is the point for crossing Dudden sands by the ancient road into Cumberland.

 

After these rather puzzling villages we set off with the main road for a bit until we were able to leave for the old main road as a quieter option. On this we had to free wheel twice for some way with our legs stuck out because of flooding, making it the other side of the expanse of water just before the wheels stopped turning.

 

We then were back at the main road on a grassy strip at the side then having to cross the traffic to get to the cycleway on the opposite side of the busy road. Crazy! This took us by a tank parked at a house like a family car. Then it was industry, chemical factories, a huge fire station, having missed the turning for more cycleway, all the route into Barrow.

 

We made it a circular trip which added 4 miles unnecessarily but it wasn’t worth taking the train back to the car. It would have been worth a detour to Furness Abbey, only second in importance to Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, if we had more time. Plenty of cyclists were riding that way on the Sunday when we rode by on the train from Grange over Sands.

 

We arrived back at the car in Dalton without any more rain and set off just after 6 for Lancaster.

Bob enjoyed the day but I felt cheated that we didn’t get very far today, just 16 miles altogether.