Category Archives: peat, bogs and moors

Snippet 14: Long-lost piddocks and the peat

Posted on May 16, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

The shore at Beckfoot, on a sunny, windy day in May: the Solway is a churned, pale brown, and a wavering white line far off in the Firth marks where the incoming tide is beating against a sandbank. Towards the … Continue reading →

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‘Cold cases’: land-scape puzzles on the Solway shore

Posted on December 3, 2020 by solwayshorewalker

“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 →

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The acronyms’ stories: imagine.

Posted on June 11, 2020 by solwayshorewalker

‘Alphabet soup’: AONB, EMS, MPA, MCZ, NNR, SAC, SPA, SSSI – how many more of these acronyms for conservation designations can you recall? Do you know what they mean? (If you don’t – and not many people do – you … Continue reading →

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SACs, SPAs, SSSIs on the Solway Firth: Learning to love the acronyms

Posted on June 10, 2020 by solwayshorewalker

“Think of [the list] as not so much an inventory as a catalogue leading to compelling and interacting stories.” [1] Conservation designations: their borders aren’t marked by posts or buoys, but they are marked by lines on maps, and by … 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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The Solway viaduct

Posted on July 26, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

(Note: for a longer and fuller account of the design, construction and demolition of the Solway Junction Railway and viaduct, a research project by myself and James Smith and supported with funding from the Solway Wetlands Partnership and the Heritage … Continue reading →

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