From the moment you stride out from the car park at Pott\u2019s Corner, you realise that you\u2019re walking in a special place. Looking out across the mudflats at this time of year, you can enjoy one of nature\u2019s great spectacles \u2013 swirling flocks of knots and dunlins alternate from dark to light, swerving and changing direction, their movements painting elaborate pictures\u00a0in the sky.<\/p>\n
![\""Dunlins\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2018\/09\/Dunlins-960a94a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C411"\" "\\"\"Dunlins\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>As many as 50,000 birds feed here \u2013 look out for long-legged waders such\u00a0as bar-tailed godwits and redshanks with their bright-orange legs, often joined by plump shelducks out on the mud. Thousands more birds pass overhead on their migration, while solitary curlews swoop down, their mournful calls mixing with the piping trills of oystercatchers.<\/p>\n You may also like<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> 2. Worth of heart<\/strong><\/p>\n This corner of Lancashire\u00a0was a big part of Britain\u2019s mercantile history \u2013 it\u2019s said that the first bale of cotton from the New World arrived\u00a0at this once-thriving port. Along with mahogany, rum, sugar and molasses, many\u00a0of the ships also carried slaves.<\/p>\n After roughly half a mile strolling along the shoreline, you\u2019ll come to a tragic reminder\u00a0of the area\u2019s wretched\u00a0past. A small enclosure\u00a0marks Sambo\u2019s Grave, the tombstone of a young African boy and servant to a ship\u2019s captain who, wracked with illness, was set ashore here in 1736. Accounts differ about whether he was taken in by villagers or shunned, but he passed away just four days after he made landfall. The gravestone was added some 60 years later and decrees that God will judge \u201cNot on man\u2019s colour, but his worth of heart.\u201d Flowers and messages are often left beside the grave.<\/p>\n 3. Lune wildlife<\/strong><\/p>\n Reaching the tip of this\u00a0often-bleak yet mesmerising landscape, you will see the diminutive Plover Scar Lighthouse<\/a> sitting out in the channel. Built in 1847, the refurbished eight-metre-high building continues to guide ships into the Lune estuary.<\/p>\n Loop north, stopping for a while to watch the swirling waters of the Lune. You may spot porpoise here, and salmon travelling upstream to ancient spawning grounds, while roe deer have even been known\u00a0to swim across the channel.<\/p>\n In the early 1800s, having lost its key maritime role to the docks at Glasson on the opposite bank, Sunderland reinvented itself as Little Brighton on the Lune. The river became popular with bathers, who sought the medicinal properties of the salt water and the gloopy estuarine mud \u2013 all the vogue in those days.<\/p>\n 4. Sunderland sunset<\/strong><\/p>\n A few hundred yards further, you enter Sunderland. Twice a day, the causeway over to the mainland is cut off by the swirling tide, an event that gives the village its name \u2013 a land sundered from the main. It is\u00a0a community of no more than 30 homes with a clutch of listed buildings, but no shop or caf\u00e9. Number two on First Terrace was once the smithy and ropewalk, while next door\u00a0was the Customs House.<\/p>\n From the village, follow the Lane as it crosses the peninsula, and retrace your steps back north to Potts Corner. With any luck, this marshy wonderland will be bathed in the glow of a\u00a0perfect autumn sunset.<\/p>\n![\""plover-scar-lighthouse-7f61b5d"\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2018\/09\/plover-scar-lighthouse-7f61b5d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"plover-scar-lighthouse-7f61b5d\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Sunderland Point map<\/h2>\n
![\""Sunderland\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2022\/01\/Sunderland-Point-walking-route-and-map-785c0be.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"Sunderland\\"\/")
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