Category Archives: stones

Protecting the coast: limestone rock armour

Posted on November 18, 2022 by solwayshorewalker

A local Cumberland councillor, who sits on the Board of the cross-border Solway Firth Partnership, often refers to the Cumbrian coast as being the ‘soft side’ of the Firth, in contrast to the rockier Scottish, side. And once you have … Continue reading →

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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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Fish traps on the Mawbray shore

Posted on April 29, 2021 by solwayshorewalker

It is a low spring tide, chosen especially because it allows us to scan a vast area of the shore. Above Mawbray Banks, pilot Andrew Lysser turns the gyroplane in a circle, its rotors buzzing and clattering, and I lean … 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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The naming of stones

Posted on April 23, 2015 by solwayshorewalker

Nellie and Pintle, High Netherma and Maston; Metalstones, Archie and Popple scaurs. “The names go back a terrible long time,” Ronnie Porter tells me. They’re part of the oral tradition of the shore, and neither Ronnie nor his wife know … Continue reading →

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Loom-stones or fishing-weights? (And the role of piddocks)

Posted on February 23, 2015 by solwayshorewalker

In my post on March 21st 2014 I wrote about an object I had found on the shore near Beckfoot, which one of my shore-walkers told me was a warp-weight or loom-stone; I subsequently saw similar objects used to keep … Continue reading →

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Loom-stones and fish-traps

Posted on March 21, 2014 by solwayshorewalker

“It’s a loom-stone. A warp-weight.” We were standing by the cars, at the end of a couple of hours’ walking, talking and guddling in the pools near Allonby, and one of the walkers had been showing us some objects that … Continue reading →

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