Start Point: Ballam Road Car Park, adjacent to Park View Playing Fields (OS ref: SD366276) Various other start points can be picked around the route
Distance: 6.5miles approx.
Route:
- Head over the bridge across brook at west side of car park. Follow path through Park View Playing Fields. Just before road, follow path in park north. At school, cross the road towards wooded area Green Drive north.
- Follow path through wooded trail. At end of wood, cross road and follow road south-west over railway bridge. Turn left to walk north up main road, cross at crossing and continue north until boat yard.
- Join Lancashire Coastal Way to right of boat yard. Follow track around grassed area, along estuary inlet to main road.
- Turn left on main road, then left again at convenience store on corner of Dock Road. Follow roadside path to Victory Boulevard, then follow roadside path on Victory Boulevard to Vanguard Wharf. Head through metal gate on to estuary walk path.
- Follow concrete path to steps, head down steps and follow faint path east then north-east before climbing small steps to promenade. Turn left to walk east along promenade past windmill. Take short detour up jetty.
- Back on promenade, walk left past Ribble Cruising club then turn right before Lytham Green Car Park towards town centre. Through Clifton Square piazza, turn left to walk east along main road until you reach Lowther Gardens.
- Cross diagonally south-east through gardens and cross road to Lytham Green and promenade. Walk east along promenade until path on right towards dead-end road. Head north up this road, across two main roads to gate posted private road.
- Walk up private road into wooden track and over railway bridge through to housing estate. In estate, turn right on Ringwood Close then cross to Maplewood Close, then through opening. Past the opening head north and see gates for Lytham Hall back entrance. Explore grounds of hall.
- Leave Lytham Hall on main drive at south-west corner of the main hall building. Follow drive until gate house. Turn left after gate house and follow roadside path back to car park.
Lytham is my home town. I don't live there now but I went to school there, my family live there, I work there. I wanted to do a route that covered everything there is to see in the town, from the renovated hall, to the wonderfully developed playing fields, the somewhat hidden docks and the iconic windmill. I think this walk achieves that.
Most visitors to Lytham will know the main features of the walk, Lytham Green and Clifton Square for sure. If you're taking kids with you then you might want to leave Park View until last as they'll want to play there. Although the opening to the dock side path isn't too enticing, once you're around the boat yard and can see the views out from the main drain it's a worthwhile part of the walk, that most visitors wouldn't ordinarily take in - it's not an area I'd even fully explored before this walk.
Once in the square, there's loads of food options. When we did this walk the new Fino Tapas was just being renovated, but if it's as good as there Preston restaurant then it will be great. Bosco just over the square is where me and my wife had our first date. There's plenty of other choice too. And, there is The Craft House at the west end of the main shopping stretch or The Taps on Henry Street just off the square if you want a good beer. There are also cafes at Lowther Gardens or Lytham Hall for more scenic refreshments, or Lytham Green is perfect for a picnic.
Lytham includes a two-mile stretch of the southern end of the Lancashire Coastal Way. It was drawn up before the Lytham Quays housing development introduced a neat estuary side path between the promenade and the docks. So anyone wanting to religiously follow the route of the LCW will miss out on this part in favour of seeing a new build medical centre and office block. Basically, the LCW needs adjusting to take in the better path that this route follows. Currently Lytham Green is a fairly unique part of the LCW. There are other marshy parts to the walk that you get below the green, and certainly some more traditional beaches, but nothing quite like the grassy green itself along with it's jetty, windmill and old lifeboat station.
