Walk Hest Bank to Carnforth – Lancashire, England

Great dog friendly walk starting from Hest Bank following the beach of Morecambe bay until Carnforth and coming back by the Lancaster canal. Amazing views during the whole walk.

Hest Bank to Carnforth Walk Information

  • Distance: 14 km
  • Duration: 4h
  • Ascent: 20m
  • Level: Easy
  • Car park: The Shore Car Park, Hest Bank, Lancaster (LA2 6HQ)
  • Dog friendly: Yes, dog can roam freely most of the walk only a small section on a busy road
Morecambe bay
Skye running on the beach

This is actually a walk we did during summer 2022 and unfortunately I have a long backlog of walks that I have not published yet. By a nice July day, we met our friends from Manchester at Hest Bank in Lancashire. We had decided to do this walk as it is located nearly half distance between Whitehaven and Manchester.

We have not done a lot of walks in Lancashire so it was great to discover new places and a nice change of scenery. We were also lucky to have a great weather that day. It was during one of the short heatwave we had last summer so the little breeze coming from the sea was very welcome.

Morecambe bay
The lake district national park in the distance

We decided to start by walking along the beach but it is totally possible to start by the Lancaster canal. We had a great view on the Morecambe bay. Skye enjoyed running on the beach and marshes bordering it. The path is mostly flat and well visible. Only near the last campsite we struggled a bit to find it as the grass was very high and we could not see it. After a couple of meters off tracks we found again the main path.

Morecambe bay
reaching Carnforth

We left the beach to arrive at Carnforth village, that we crossed in order to join the Lancaster canal. We didn’t really visit Carnforth as we were starving and wanted to stop for lunch. I am not sure if there are a lot of things to visit to be honest. Any recommendations?

Joining the Lancaster canal, we kept walking until reaching the Canal turn pub where we stopped for lunch. The pub has a great terrace by the canal and that day they had live music. After this well deserved break we continued our walk along the canal.

Lancaster canal
Lancaster canal

I have to say that I was not expecting the section along the canal to be that nice. The houses along the canal are absolutely gorgeous and with my friend we chatted about which ones we liked the most. There are as well some great bridges along it, with some canal boats. We even saw a family of swans slowly passing us.

For people liking Geocaching there are plenty of geocaches along the canal. Unfortunately my friends are not into it so I quickly tried to find two of them but as they were not easy to find I gave up to not let to them wait to long for me.

Lancaster canal
Along Lancaster canal

We all really enjoyed the day and it made us want to explore more of Lancashire. Hopefully this summer we will be able to again.

Do you know this walk? What is your favourite walk in Lancashire?


Find all our walks in UK here.

22 thoughts on “Walk Hest Bank to Carnforth – Lancashire, England

  1. You certainly got a beautiful day for your walk and you got some lovely pictures. That rusty wreck of a car on the beach was a good find, whereabouts was it? I intend to walk Hest Bank to Carnforth along the canal this summer but starting from a lay-by on the main road just north of Hest Bank itself.

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  2. I haven’t walked that exact walk but have walked a shorter one along the beach from Hest Bank to Red Bank Farm Campsite at Bolton Le Sands. It’s a nice beach for dog walking. I would like to visit Carnforth as there is an old fashioned railway station there that was used in the filming of a classic British film from the 1940s called Brief Encounter. Apparently it is a 1940s style cafe bar with a museum about the movie. There are some nice walks in Lancashire. I like coastal ones like Silverdale and Half Moon Bay to Heysham.

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  3. It’s a small world sometimes, isn’t it? We have some friends, currently over here in the Algarve, who live in Garstang and are almost certain to know this walk. It’s years since I’ve been to Morecambe Bay and probably never to Carnforth but the canal looks lovely.

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