One of the major benefits of living at Scout Cragg, our peaceful park just a stone’s throw from the Lancashire coastline, is its proximity to the area known as Silverdale. This charming spot beckons with the opportunity for serene walks along limestone paths and through woodlands, and the offer of breathtaking vistas of Morecambe Bay and the Lakeland Fells beyond. There are plenty of things to do in Silverdale!
1. Three great places to visit in Silverdale
There is plenty to keep you occupied around Silverdale – and here we pick our top three things to while away your off-park hours.
2. Leighton Moss
Nature lovers will find this nature reserve near Morecambe Bay the perfect spot to observe the animal kingdom at its finest. A wetland paradise showcasing the largest reed bed in the north-west of England, Leighton Moss provides shelter to otters, bearded tits, bitterns, marsh harriers, egrets and even red deer. With mudflats, coastal marsh and saltwater lagoons offering different habitats, there are perfect conditions for nature to thrive. A café and visitor centre provide a social and educational hub, where you can learn more about the creatures great and small which occupy Leighton Moss.
3. Gait Barrows
Another spot for nature lovers to indulge in, Gait Barrows reserve is one of Britain’s most important limestone landscapes. It’s made up of an intricate mosaic of limestone and peatland habitats, offering a home to a rich and diverse variety of wildlife. There are several public footpaths and three way-marked nature trails on Gait Barrows, and when walking them you’re likely to encounter Duke of Burgundy butterflies, green woodpeckers, reed warblers, blackcaps and haw finches, as well as a vast array of wonderful flora and fauna. Picnics are welcome, or if you would like to use a café then there are the ones at nearby Leighton Moss, Silverdale and Arnside.
4. Jenny Brown’s Point
This small headland, south of the village, is one of the key features of the area. A nearby grade 2 chimney has been the subject of archaeological investigations and is now thought to be the remains of a reverberatory furnace, a relic from a copper mining and smelting project set up in the 1780s. The serene views offered from Jenny Brown’s Point are enough to instantly relax visitors, though those who like a puzzle will wonder why exactly the headland is named as it is. There are various theories – that Jenny Brown was a lover awaiting the return of a lost sailor, or a nanny who saved her charges from the incoming tide, or a local lodging-house keeper or even a steam engine which visited Brown’s Point. Whatever the truth, this is a spectacular yet modest spot.
5. Silverdale connections
Several notable personalities have a connection to Silverdale, including Bradford-born author Willie Riley (Windyridge and The Silver Dale) who moved here in 1919 and lived at a house called Windridge, and exceptional writer, songwriter and comedian Victoria Wood (who passed away in 2016). Wood and her husband raised their family here, at the beautiful Cove Lea on Cove Road, in the 1980s and 1990s. The village’s Gaskell Hall pays homage to novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who sought summer respite from Manchester and wrote some of her works at Lindeth Tower near Gibraltar Farm.
Fun things to do in Silverdale include visiting any of these spots if you wish to see where greatness once resided! However, it is always the done thing to remember that these are private properties, and the current residents should be afforded all due respect.
6. Silverdale’s Viking hoard
Detectorists discovered a mighty collection of more than 200 pieces of Viking jewellery and coins close to Silverdale in 2011. This has become famous as the Silverdale Hoard – although it’s no longer here (having been purchased by Lancashire Museums Service and put on display at Lancaster City Museum and the Museum of Lancashire in Preston, as well as travelling to an exhibition at major Viking centre Jorvik in York).
The Silverdale Hoard is still regarded as one of the most significant things to happen here in the recent past due to a coin amongst it stamped with the name of a previously unknown Viking ruler. Believed to date to around AD 900 – a period of intense fighting between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danish settlers in the north of England – the Silverdale Hoard is one of the largest Viking hoards ever found in the UK.
Modest and beautiful, with plenty of relaxingly paced things to do, Silverdale in Lancashire is a great spot to explore on your days out and about from our Scout Cragg Holiday Park. With more than a hundred spaciously sited luxury holiday homes, Scout Cragg is the perfect base and offers access to an area that is quiet and peaceful, and rich with charm.
