Sunderland Point including Sambo's Grave.

Start. Middleton Sands car park.

Route. Middleton Sands car park - Browns Farm - Sambo's Grave - Hall End Skear - Sunderland Point - The Lane - Middleton Sands car park.

Notes. This was a short one, a wander over windswept mud flats and marsh, by river and sea under the big skies of Morecambe Bay to visit the small peninsula of Sunderland Point. Cut off twice daily at high tide the remote and secretive spit of land was once an off-port to the Port of Lancaster, ships laden with cotton, sugar and slaves unloaded here, this brings us to the sad story of Sambo.

To cut a long story short Sambo arrived in 1736 from the West Indies, the servant to the captain of an unnamed ship, he died in the village inn a few days later, his body was interred in a lonely dell amidst a rabbit warren behind the village within twenty yards of the sea shore. Over the years that followed it has become a place of pilgrimage.

We started at Potts Corner on the edge of Middleton Sands, our route followed the landward edge of the salt marsh, at first we attempted to cross the many water filled gullies but soon gave up, doubling back to a track that guided us south. At one point the track climbed into cow pastures, we stayed on the seaward side of the fence, on reaching a bridleway (The Lane) we visited Sambo’s Grave, passing a Horizon Line Chamber en route.

Continuing south we rounded Hall End Skear joining the muddy banks of the River Lune for the final walk into Sunderland Point. After a good wander around The Lane ushered us back to Sambo’s Grave and our outward route, all that remained to wander back along the edge of Morecambe Bay.

view route map.

home.

From near the car park views across Morecambe Bay to the Furness Peninsula and the great dome of Black Combe.

The salt marsh at Middleton Sands,

Viewing the Fylde Coast.

Under the big skies of Morecambe Bay.

Looking back to Potts Corner, the car park and Heysham Power Station.

Welcome to the Horizon Line Chamber by artist Chris Drury, it's a camera obscura with cataracts, somebody aught to clean the lens.

Sambo's Grave a poignant reminder of our past.

Nearing Hall End Skear looking out across the bay, the ship is the Isle of Man ferry bound for Heysham.

Old sea defenses at Hall End Skear looking across the mouth of the River Lune.

Near Sunderland Point with views to the hills of Bowland.

Old Hall, Sunderland Point.

Echoes of the past, I presume these poles were once used to dry fishing nets, haaf-net fishing was the traditional method used to catch salmon entering the shallow waters at the mouth of the River Lune.

The River Lune at Sunderland Point.

Why not take a photo of a yellow boat.

Near Browns Farm looking over the fertile coastal plane to the hills of the Bowland Forest.

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