Author Archives: solwayshorewalker

Where ships meet …

Posted on January 18, 2019 by solwayshorewalker

Goldilocks would have liked the tanker Zapadnyy’s cargo: molasses, at just the right temperature, not too hot and not too cold. Transporting molasses is tricky – it must be kept fairly fluid, so heating coils warm it to 24oC in … Continue reading →

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Port Carlisle: canals and ships and trains

Posted on October 13, 2018 by solwayshorewalker

(September 2020: you can now also view two videos about Port Carlisle, made for the launch of my book The Fresh and the Salt. The Story of the Solway: links are on the website.) When the tide is out, Port … Continue reading →

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Tracking Triops, the elusive Tadpole Shrimp

Posted on October 1, 2018 by solwayshorewalker

In August, after the long weeks of cloudless blue skies, and heat that shimmered over the cracked mud of the merse, the rain came. The jet stream had looped into another orientation, and the rain fell day after day for … Continue reading →

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Recording the Solway’s amazing nature: a guest post by Deborah Muscat

Posted on July 7, 2018 by solwayshorewalker

Why we need to pay attention to the other living species with whom we share this area, and identify and record them. My thanks to Deborah Muscat, Manager of the Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre based in Carlisle, for writing this … Continue reading →

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The Solway saltmarshes

Posted on August 29, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

At first light on a Sunday morning in late September, Norman Holton sat on the edge of Campfield Marsh near Bowness on the Solway. On the Scottish side the starlings were, as usual, gathering in great wheeling clouds, and as … Continue reading →

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Capturing memories: the ‘Remembering the Solway’ oral history project

Posted on July 30, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

‘I’ve enjoyed every single bit of it – every interview, every person has been a sheer gem,’ Jean Graham told us at the celebration that marked the end of the oral history project, Remembering the Solway. ‘And how marvellous it … Continue reading →

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Snippets 13: “A hare in a fix”

Posted on June 16, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

The polar bear on the ice-floe is the iconic image of climate change and the warming of our seas. Here on the Solway Firth nearly 140 years ago, the climate had changed in the other direction – towards a bitter … Continue reading →

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What’s a clay dabbin?

Posted on May 5, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

“The first thing people do is stroke the walls – it’s tactile, there’s something about it that makes people want to touch it.” Alex Gibbons On April 28th 2017 the first clay dabbins building to be constructed on the Solway … Continue reading →

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Snippets 12: In praise of Bowness Moss

Posted on March 27, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

Bowness Moss or Common is one of the South Solway Mosses National Nature Reserves, NNR. The near-pristine centre of this raised mire is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, SSSI;  it’s also a Special Area of Conservation, SAC. Acronyms are … Continue reading →

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Ask the fellows who cut the peats

Posted on March 13, 2017 by solwayshorewalker

“I just went and asked for a job – I fancied gaan cuttin’ peat. The foreman said, ‘I’ll take you up on the moss’ – and what a walk it was! A big wide open space, peat stacks everywhere. And … Continue reading →

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