Tour Lancaster Castle, where the Pendle witches were tried in 1612, and its Georgian Crown Court

Climb to the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park

Walk Morecambe promenade and find the Eric Morecambe statue

Look across Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland fells

Lancaster Castle was first used as a prison in 1196 and was a prison again as recently as 2011, which is why so little of it has ever been dug: the Pendle witches were tried here in 1612 and hanged on the moor above. On the hill behind, the Ashton Memorial stands over Williamson Park, and Morecambe looks out across the bay to the Lakeland fells with Eric Morecambe in bronze on the promenade.

Lancaster and Morecambe: The Witch Trials and the Bay

Morecambe Bay and Leighton Moss

Liverpool

Nine nights in a loop from Liverpool: the bitterns of Leighton Moss, Windermere, Coniston and Hill Top, Catbells above Derwentwater, the Ullswater steamers, then Wensleydale cheese and Malham Cove in the Dales.

The Lakes and the Dales from Liverpool

Holyhead

Thirteen nights in a loop from Holyhead: walled Conwy, then Hill Top, the Ullswater steamers and Catbells in the Lakes, Malham Cove and Ribblehead in the Dales, and Castleton's caverns in the Peak.

The Lakes, the Dales and the Peak from Holyhead

Strike the Eric Morecambe pose beside his statue on the prom

Walk the Stone Jetty and find the Time and Tide Bell beside it, which rings around high tide

See the Winter Gardens, the old Victoria Pavilion

Morecambe grew out of the fishing village of Poulton-le-Sands after the Morecambe Harbour and Railway Company was formed in 1846 to build a harbour and railway there, and the seafront still has the shape of a Victorian resort with the whole Lakeland skyline across the water. Graham Ibbeson's bronze of Eric Morecambe, born here in 1926, was unveiled by the Queen in July 1999 and stands looking out over the bay. Beside the Stone Jetty, a Time and Tide Bell by Marcus Vergette was installed in 2019 and is rung by the sea itself.

Morecambe: Eric, the Winter Gardens and the Time and Tide Bell

Listen for booming bitterns from the reedbed hides in spring

Look for bearded tits on the grit trays in autumn

Watch marsh harriers quartering the reeds

Walk over to the saltmarsh hides on the bay side

Leighton Moss, behind Morecambe Bay, is an RSPB reserve known for its breeding bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits, with otters and red deer in the reeds; six booming male bitterns were counted in 2021. The RSPB also protects a stretch of Morecambe Bay saltmarsh here where avocets feed. In spring the booming carries across the reedbed, a sound like blowing over the top of a bottle.

Leighton Moss: Bitterns in the Biggest Reedbed in the North-West

Walk across Morecambe Bay from Arnside to Kents Bank with the King's Guide to the Sands

Watch the tide come in at the Arnside Viaduct, where the bore runs up the Kent

Crossing the sands of Morecambe Bay is an ancient and dangerous route, and a royally appointed guide leads people over: the King's Guide to the Sands, Queen's Guide in a queen's reign. Cedric Robinson held the post from 1963 to 2019, and Michael Wilson, a local fisherman, succeeded him; the guide is paid £20 a year and has the use of the Guide's Cottage at Kents Bank. Walks go about once a fortnight from spring to autumn, usually from Arnside over to Kents Bank, fording the River Kent on the way. At Arnside the railway crosses the Kent on its viaduct of 1857, where the tidal bore comes up the estuary.

Morecambe Bay: Walking the Sands With the King's Guide

Drive the single road through the Trough of Bowland

Stop at the top of the pass between the two valleys

Go to Dunsop Bridge, near the geographic centre of Great Britain

Look for hen harriers, the emblem of the AONB, over the Bowland fells

The Forest of Bowland was made an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1964, and its upland core is very sparsely populated; the Bowland Fells are a Special Protection Area for breeding merlin and hen harrier. The Trough of Bowland is the pass through the middle of it, linking the valley of the Marshaw Wyre with Langden Brook and splitting the upland core in two. By one reckoning the geographic centre of Great Britain lies at the Whitendale Hanging Stones, about four miles north of Dunsop Bridge.

The Trough of Bowland: The Pass Through the Empty Quarter

Walk the nave and transepts of the ruined abbey church

Find the carved seats of the sedilia and the chapter house arches

Walk the valley path from the abbey towards Barrow

Furness Abbey was founded in 1123 by Stephen, Count of Boulogne, for the Order of Savigny, and passed to the Cistercians in 1147; by the 15th century it was the second richest and most powerful Cistercian house in England, behind Fountains. Its sandstone arches stand in the wooded Vale of Nightshade south of Dalton-in-Furness.

Furness Abbey: The Red Sandstone Ruin in the Vale of Nightshade

Visit Blackpool Tower, opened in 1894, and dance in the Tower Ballroom

Ride the Blackpool Tramway along the front, running since 1885

Ride the Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the amusement park that opened in 1896

See the Blackpool Illuminations, the autumn light display

Blackpool Tower opened in 1894, and Frank Matcham's Tower Ballroom beneath it in 1899; the tramway has run along the front since 1885, and the Pleasure Beach opened in 1896. The Illuminations were first switched on in 1879, and six miles of lights now run along the promenade from late August or early September until the first weekend of January.

Blackpool: The Tower, the Trams and the Illuminations

Stand under the 24 arches of Ribblehead viaduct

Ride the line over the viaduct from Ribblehead station

Find the earthworks of the navvy camps and the brickworks on Batty Moss below the viaduct

The Midland Railway built the Settle–Carlisle line in the 1870s to have its own route to Scotland, free of its obstructive rival the LNWR, and navvies drove it through some of the bleakest country in England: 73 miles with 14 tunnels and 22 viaducts, among them Ribblehead striding 24 arches across the moor. Northbound trains climb 16 miles at 1 in 100 from Settle to Blea Moor — the Long Drag. British Rail tried to close it in the 1980s; the campaign to save it succeeded in 1989, and it still carries trains.

The Settle–Carlisle Line: Ribblehead and the Long Drag

Walk the inner bailey and the round chapel at Ludlow Castle

Climb the tower of St Laurence's church for the view over the Marches

Buy from the butchers and bakers around the market square

Walk the loop of the Teme below the castle

Ludlow Castle, probably founded by Walter de Lacy around 1075, became one of the great marcher fortresses, held by the Mortimers and later the seat of the Council in the Marches of Wales, with a rare circular chapel in its inner bailey. The town below it kept its medieval grid and nearly 500 listed buildings, and made its name again as a food town with a September festival and a run of butchers, bakers and brewers.