Flower hunting is great fun and flowers are easier to identify than birds - they don't fly away! But the beach is hardly the place you'd expect to find them. However Ainsdale is different, for here tall spikes of evening-primrose stand high amid dunes carpeted with restharrow, yellow-wort and the beautiful seaside centaury. We even found a couple of rarities then, following the ebbing tide, we watched powerkarts racing up and down the sands before a final paddle in a sun-warmed sea.
LOCATION: 3 miles south of Southport
START: Follow signs to Ainsdale Beach from A565 and park on beach, toilets
Grid ref: SD298129 Postcode: PR8 2PZ
DISTANCE: 6 miles
GRADE: Easy
TIME: 3 hours
MAP: Explorer - Southport Landranger 108
REFRESHMENTS: Beach refreshment van
EN ROUTE: Coastal Road, Sefton Coastal Footpath, Trans Pennine Trail, English Nature National Nature Reserve, Woodvale Airfield, Woodland Path, red squirrel, Formby golf course, Fisherman's Path, Ainsdale Hills Local Nature Reserve, Dune Path, natterjack toad, sand lizard, Ainsdale Discovery Centre
This walk was originally published by
The Manchester Evening News