Caravan club sites in Lancashire

Lancashire is mostly used as a corridor by caravanners heading for the Lakes, which is a waste. The Ribble Valley and the Forest of Bowland are quiet, cheap and within twenty minutes of the M6, and the Fylde coast gives you Blackpool if you want it and Lytham if you do not.

Where the sites are

The Fylde coast around Blackpool, Lytham St Annes and Poulton-le-Fylde holds the largest number of pitches, though many are static-dominated parks rather than touring sites. The Ribble Valley around Clitheroe, Whalley and Slaidburn is the better touring cluster. Lancaster and Morecambe form a third group, useful for Arnside, Silverdale and the southern edge of the Lakes.

Getting there

The M6 runs the length of the county, with the M55 spurring west to Blackpool and the M65 east to Burnley. Access is as easy as anywhere in the north. The A59 from Preston to Skipton is the cross-country route into the Yorkshire Dales and is straightforward with a van.

Local notes

The Trough of Bowland needs thinking about. It crosses from Dunsop Bridge to Marshaw and Abbeystead on an unclassified moorland road with 1 in 5 gradients, cattle grids, no white lines and very few passing places. It is not signed against caravans and it is entirely unsuitable for one. Go round via the A6 and the Lune Valley, or the A59 and Slaidburn.

The A683 from Lancaster up the Lune Valley to Kirkby Lonsdale is a good, quiet alternative to the M6 for reaching the southern Lakes and the Dales, and it handles an outfit without trouble.

Blackpool's promenade and the roads around the Pleasure Beach are hopeless with anything hitched during the Illuminations, which run from late summer into early January and bring stop-start traffic every evening.

The season is late March to the end of October for most touring sites, with some Fylde parks open longer.