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Category Archives: Allonby
Snippet 16: A beautiful ‘flower’ on the Allonby shore
Tubularia: its delicate tentacles wafting in the current, its stalks swaying gently, its body glowing crimson-red despite the sediment-laden tide. It’s not a plant, it’s not a sea-weed: it’s an animal which is related to sea-anemones and jellyfish, and a … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Snippets
Tagged reproduction
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The Highly Protected Marine Area of Allonby Bay: the story so far…
‘We should be excited that Allonby is the first inshore HPMA in England! It’s something to celebrate.’ Indeed it is! It was a small get-together – only five of us had come along – to discuss how much we knew … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm
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Neaps and Springs: high highs, low highs, and high or low lows.
During the biggest Spring tides of the year, often in September, the height of the water in the Solway Firth might change by almost 10 metres – that’s nearly 33 feet – during the course of one tidal cycle. And … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, rowing, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Spring & Neap Tides, tidelines
Tagged guided walks, sea-level changes, skiff, tideline
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Snippet 15: The continuing mystery of the piddocks
The tide is ebbing and, along the inner edge of a shallow channel on the shore, it has deposited a line of offerings, neatly sorted: predominantly mussel shells, some black, some striped, all shining wetly in the October sun; a … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Found Objects, sea-bed & undersea, shells, Snippets, submerged forest
Tagged Pholas, piddocks, Zirfaea
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The saltpans at Crosscanonby
The tides and currents have sorted the sizes and colours of the shingle, and here on the upper shore near Crosscanonby I am walking over shapes that are large – and predominantly red: lumps and discs of the New Red … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, Allonby, coastal heritage, salt
Tagged Crosscanonby, kinch, saltpans, wooden pipe
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‘Cold cases’: land-scape puzzles on the Solway shore
“Mr Cash went to Beckfoot … the submerged forest was not visible and I regret to say the residents he inquired from had not even heard of it”. So wrote Brian Blake in his 1955 book The Solway Firth, which … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, dunes, peat, peat, bogs and moors, sea-bed & undersea, submerged forest
Tagged peat, piddocks, submerged forest
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The vanishing keel on Ship’s-keel Scaur
Back in 2015 near Dubmill Point on Allonby Bay I finally found what I’d been searching for: the ‘ship’s keel’ for which Ship’s-Keel Scaur is named. Its timbers were as hard as iron, the keel (if that is what it … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, coastal heritage, industrial archaeology, ships
Tagged shifting sand, shipwrecks
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Time-warps and gnomons
It was a fine bright morning, there was still a sprinkling of snow on the fells, but Spring was clearly on its way; I’d spent too much time at my desk writing and longed for the changed perspective of the … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, tidelines
Tagged coastal walking, volunteers
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Snippets 11: big moon, big tides, at Allonby Bay
On Monday night the full moon, its face very slightly squashed, shone down on a stormy Solway Firth. The brown silt-laden waves pounded ashore and shortly after midnight the incoming tide that was battering the sea-defences at Dubmill Point reached … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Snippets, Spring & Neap Tides
Tagged Sabellaria
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Allonby Bay MCZ: a ‘slimy dangerous place?’
Allonby Bay, on Cumbria’s Solway coast, recently became a Marine Conservation Zone; there are now 50 MCZs in English and ‘non-devolved’ waters and proposals for more are under consideration. Most people, probably, neither know nor would they care. Here are … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, Marine Conservation Zone, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged Allonby Bay, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Solway, undersea
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Solway Shore-walker 