What did you do to escape the Royal Wedding???

Heysham...not many people's choice I should imagine but a place I fell in love with years ago and also the place that first introduced me to Sal on Flickr. If I remember rightly, I had called in Morecambe on my way back from The Lakes and, as I followed the signs back to the M6, I somehow ended up there! Fate played a good part in my life that day.

The quaint part of the town is mainly centred around the ancient St Patrick's Chapel and St Peter's Church. Of historical interest are the stone graves in the ruins of the ancient St. Patrick's Chapel which are thought to date from the 11th century, and are hewn from solid rock. Local legend has it that St Patrick landed here after crossing from Ireland and established the chapel. However it has been established that the chapel was built around 300 years after Patrick's death. On a side note, these stone graves appear on the cover of the Black Sabbath CD, "The Best of Black Sabbath".

The grounds of St Peter's Church contain many Saxon and Viking remains, and the church itself contains a Viking hogback stone which were large Scandinavian sculptures that were used as grave markers in the 11th century. The surrounding area is known as The Barrows which is also another ancient name for a burial ground and this area is home to the only rock cliffs in Lancashire. On a clear day you can see across Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland fells.

The only downside of Heysham is the ungainly mass of the port where ferries leave for the Isle of Man and the nuclear power station both of which are situated at the far end of The Barrows and Half Moon Bay.

Our first port of call, as is usual these days, was for a delicious cup of coffee in the newly furbished Church Hall. The one thing you can thank these major coffee shop franchises for is that they have made us more aware of how good a proper cup of coffee can be. Even the most basic cafes/coffee shops these days seem to have a machine which matches anything that a Costa or a Starbucks can offer and usually at a more reasonable price. I believe ours cost £1.50 compared to the £2.50 that one of the chains would charge.

The coffee was followed by a couple of hours of just wandering around the immediate area and Half Moon Bay with our cameras. We had clear blue sunny skies so neither of us was in any great rush which just seemed to add to our enjoyment. The positioning of St Peter's graveyard must be one of the most spectacular in the country; it stretches right down to the shore of Morecambe Bay and, if you are still around to enjoy it, commands a fabulous view across the bay, especially so on a clear day like what we had (see what I did there?).

A fine afternoon was finished off nicely by a visit to The Royal Inn which, despite having a beer garden full of annoying people, was just what the doctor ordered. This photography business can be thirsty work! We drove back along Morecambe promenade just so that we could say hi to "Eric" and had intended to stop but being as it was so busy and our day had been so long, we gave it a miss.

Earlier in our day Sal had mentioned the grave of a slave/cabin boy called Sambo (I know!!) who arrived on these shores from The West Indies in 1736. He took to the hearts of the local people so much so that, when he passed away, they buried him on unconsecrated ground at a place called Sunderland Point. In the day it was a port serving cotton and sugar and overlooked the Bay.

Sal had said she would like to try and visit it so off we went in search of Sambo. Apparently these days the grave is a bit of a shrine where visitors leave various small artifacts in his memory. Our first attempted starting point was flooded by the high tide and then, due to inaccurate information given by a local, our second attempt from a different starting point was abandoned. This was because a couple of locals told us the walk was three miles long (making it a six mile round trip) but when we checked later, it was in fact only about a mile. We decided to wait until our next visit and go and pay our respects then.

Just from this short walk, it is so easy to see how people can get cut off when the fast tide comes in on the bay as the grassy sands are full of fast filling channels which can be pretty tricky to cross. It was obvious that the area were in never got invaded by the tide but I should imaging being further out could be problematic.

We had a break in our homeward journey for a pint in at The New Inn at Clapham finished off the day very nicely.