Lace up your walking boots and head to the Lancashire coast to discover a region steeped in history and legend, with a cosy foodie inn at the end of the trail

The bright morning sun sat high in the sky as we picked our way along the narrow clifftop path, and the calm sea shimmered as rays danced on the surface. ‘Isn’t it beautiful?,’ I said to my husband, John. I’d been inspired to try to take in some of the country’s coastal paths after reading Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir The Salt Path, which charts the emotional journey she and her husband took along the 630-mile South West Coast Path. We’d been travelling home from the Lake District when I decided we should stop off for a three-mile saunter along a small part of the long-distance Lancashire Coastal Way. Our little section ran from Morecambe to the former fishing village of Heysham, a community that dates back to Viking times.

The trail brings you to the village and the church of St Peter’s, which houses a rare Viking grave-cover known as a hogback stone. Up and away from the village, we came across the ruins of the 8th-century St Patrick’s Chapel, complete with a stone archway framing a picture-perfect view. As we took in the vista, John ambled away. I found him standing at the base of a set of rock-hewn burial tombs, believed to date back to before the Norman Conquest. This area is steeped in history – the village hosts an annual Heysham Viking Festival, which reenacts the invasions along these shores.

As we headed on towards Half Moon Bay, we saw a huge steel sculpture rising up from the shoreline. SHIP by Anna Gillespie sits at the threshold between land and sea, created to celebrate the landscape and the area’s maritime heritage. With its backdrop of shifting tides, and the sun setting on the horizon behind, it appears as two ends of a boat emerging from the ground. A figure is perched on each raised point: one faces towards the ancient monument of St Patrick’s, the other towards the town’s industrial future – Heysham Nuclear Power Station.

After retracing our steps to Heysham, we arrived at The Royal, a 16th-century country inn made up of a series of cosy rooms with open fires and wood panelling. More than ready for dinner, we briefly argued over who could have the pot of mace butter shrimps to start… I lost, and went for the ham and black pudding terrine instead. The nutty, peppery sweetness of the mace butter set the shrimps off beautifully, while the terrine was a hearty portion, served with toasted sourdough and topped with a sweet apricot and tomato chutney. To follow, John went for classic steak, chips and salad. My pan-roasted coley was flaky perfection, served with a rustic tomato and bacon sauce, and a gorgeous pairing of garlic-buttered new potatoes and samphire. We finished by sharing a light-as-you-like tiramisu, then headed to our room, which had homely touches, including tea- and coffee-making facilities and interesting guidebooks on the area.

The next morning we had to be away early, but I was keen to grab one more sea fix. So we headed back to SHIP, with coffees from the Half Moon Café, and sat on the stone at the heart of the artwork in the morning sunshine, gazing at the sea and pondering taking life at a slightly gentler pace.