Category Archives: sandstone

Rocks and patterns: Fleswick Bay

Posted on June 28, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Whatever the weather or state of the tide, Fleswick Bay never disappoints. Sheltered within the two arms of the St Bees headlands, it is an anomaly on the Cumbrian Solway coast – tall cliffs, caves, rocky platforms pitted with deep … Continue reading →

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Saltpans or fish-tanks? Stone basins on a Solway shore

Posted on June 10, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

Along the top of the shore between Maryport and its golf club is a high and wide promenade, constructed in the 1930s from an astonishing volume of concrete. At weekends it’s a perfect walkway for families with pushchairs, small hairy … Continue reading →

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Snippets 10: stone stoops

Posted on August 19, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

Gateposts don’t normally attract our attention, so it is easy to miss the fact that many of the ‘posts’ supporting field gates on the Solway Plain are not posts at all, but are the traditional red sandstone pillars – known … Continue reading →

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Snippets 8: A non-conformist on the shore

Posted on April 18, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

‘Brockram’ and ‘breccia’: the first word suggests something that is solid and long-lasting, the other has a hint of transience, of frippery. But Brockram is a form of breccia; it looks like a congealed and lumpy mess of porridge that … Continue reading →

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The Walls of Parton

Posted on March 22, 2016 by solwayshorewalker

‘Are you looking for the old port?’ The man seemed to have appeared from nowhere, yet he was tall and strongly built, white hair sticking up straight, not easy to overlook. ‘Port?’ I was bemused – I’d been poking at … Continue reading →

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Sandstone, ‘smooth as walnut turned on a lathe’

Posted on December 3, 2015 by solwayshorewalker

“Fine sandstone is quite silky, you get a crisp image, the maximum sculptural effect. With sandstone there’s no reflection of light to distort what you see.” Sky Higgins, sculptor. “Red St Bees’ is a fine-grained stone, dull red in colour… … Continue reading →

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