Grange-over-Sands

Grange-over-Sands is a gentle, genteel resort on the northern shore of Morecambe Bay, built largely after the railway arrived in the Victorian era. It faces south across the sands, which gives it a mild climate and a sunny outlook, and its gardens, villas and churches give it a quiet, old fashioned charm.

The mile long promenade is the main walk, running along the shore beside the railway. The River Kent used to flow right past it, but the channel has migrated south and the promenade now looks over salt marsh and sands. The 1932 lido on the seafront, closed since 1993, is a Grade II listed reminder of the town's heyday. In the centre, the ornamental gardens and duck pond are a pleasant place to sit.

Above the town, Hampsfell rises to a limestone summit with the Hospice, a small stone shelter built in the nineteenth century, and a view across the bay to the Lakeland fells. Cartmel, with its priory and restaurants, is two miles over the hill. Grange is also one end of the guided Cross Bay Walks, which cross the sands from Arnside to Kents Bank in summer with the official Guide to the Sands.

It is a sleepy place, especially in winter, and the population is older than average. Never walk out onto the sands without the guide: the tides and quicksands of Morecambe Bay are deadly. It makes a calm, well connected base for Cartmel, Holker and the southern Lakes, and the trains along the Furness line give some of the best estuary views in England.