Douglas Boatyard

After saying in my last post that the weather was a bit grotty, last Sunday afternoon the sun came out so I went for a walk down to the boatyard and along the banks of the River Douglas.

I’ve been walking along this stretch of our local river since I was a child (a long time ago) and my father used to keep his boat on a fixed mooring in a creek off the river.

I remember going out in the middle of the night fishing off Blackpool and not being able to come back until the tide came back in.

After getting to the boatyard I turned left and walked along the top of the embankment that keeps the flood tide out of the fields.

This tree stump has been here almost as long as I can remember. The tide floods the area I was stood on during spring tides so it must weigh a good few tones not to have been washed out to sea.

Continuing on, the river bends to the left and heads almost in a straight line until it joins the River Ribble which then meets the sea at Lytham.

I didn’t walk that far although it is possible to get fairly close to the Ribble where plans have been submitted by the RSPB to re-flood the reclaimed land and create a wetland nature reserve called Hesketh Out Marsh. This would be fantastic and would be a great addition to the RSPB reserve at Marshside, Southport.

You can see in the photos that the panorama that evening was stunning and I was almost alone for the entire walk except for a few Shelducks, Black-headed gulls, Barnacle geese and Swallows, all taking advantage of the lovely evening to grab a bite to eat.

Before heading back inland I came across these sheep, the land is continually grazed by both sheep and cows owned by the local farmers – these are, in essence, the managers of the river banks, keeping the plants manageable and fertilising them at the same time.

In the spring walkers need to be aware that the sheep will be lambing and dogs should either be left at home or kept on a lead. I used to walk my dog, a yellow labrador called Elsa, along hear about 20 years ago and apart from a few new boats at the yard it hasn’t changed a bit – long may it stay that way.