Seaside Cafe – Duggan's Dig

It was great to see one of our local cafes included in the Guardian’s list of best seaside cafes last week. Half Moon Bay Cafe, located on the shore by Morecambe Bay in Heysham is a genuine treat in a local beauty spot. I have many fond memories of enjoying a hot bacon butty and a coffee, taking in the sea air and the views of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District hills beyond, while the driving rain lashed against the sides of the cafe.

The cafe now occupies a permanent structure on the site of the original Half Moon Bay Cafe which closed in the seventies, but it started out in a small trailer called the Zoo Cafe in 2008.

Back then, the wife and I would take a weekend stroll along the grassy pathways that crisscross the area from Heysham Head and drop down on to the beach, occasionally buying a couple of coffees if we had enough time or loose change, but the habitual stroll soon became the weekly compulsory fried breakfast at the beach, and the strolling petered out.

Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay is beautiful, and we’re very lucky to have places like this on our door step, free to use by the whole community, and there’s something for everyone.

Dogs bring their humans here for their daily exercise.

Have you seen my human? About five foot, green coat and carrying a red ball. Answers to “Woof…”

There’s the clean sandy beach.

Wild grasses. A haven for bees, butterflies and crickets.

There’s art. This one is called ‘Ship’ by Anna Gillespie.

There are both types of beach here, gravelly, and sandy, and the bedrock is exposed at low tide leaving behind rock pools, abundant with marine life, to explore.

More pebbles than there are stars in the sky.

If you like collecting beach glass, and who doesn’t, there are many fine specimens to discover. Some of the stones are perfectly triangular.

You can park your glutes on one of the many benches, plant a deckchair on the sand, or even cast a line out to sea and catch yourself some supper.

The Other View

Half Moon Bay has an alternative view. We all enjoy Television and frozen Yorkshire Puddings, and for that we need power. And Britain, being an Island, is also dependent on its ports. The ports and power stations have to go somewhere, and Half Moon Bay is one of those places.

How many English villages can boast not just one thermonuclear power station, but two? The plans for Heysham 3, one of a new generation of nuclear power stations seem to be on hold for now, but nuclear isn’t the only way to generate electricity. We’ve also got a wind farm, a solar farm, and offshore gas comes ashore here. There’s a domestic waste incineration plant in the pipeline, and if the Bay Bridge ever happens, with its tidal energy schemes, this is where it will be. Talk about Northern Powerhouse!

Next to the power station is the port. A passenger ferry sails daily to the Isle of Man, and a freight only service runs to Ireland.

For thrill seekers, there’s opportunity to be blown to bits.

Free parking is available across from the cafe, but it can be unreliable at certain times of the year. Heysham is affected by roving boulders that sometime come to rest across the car park entrance and block access for vehicles, though the stay is short lived and the boulders eventually move on.