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Tag Archives: Solway
‘The Fresh and the Salt. The Story of the Solway’
Today, World Book Day 2024, the paperback edition of my ‘Solway book’ is published. The hardback came out in 2020, during lockdown – which was not the best time to be bringing a book into the world! But despite that, … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged paperback book, Solway
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‘Saltmarsh writing workshop’ – some words and images
The RSPB’s Campfield Reserve near Bowness on the Upper Solway is a perfect place for a writing workshop, especially if you want to ‘experience’, think about, and write about saltmarshes; they form a land- and sea-scape that most people probably … Continue reading
Posted in bioturbation, mud-shrimps, mudflats, saltmarshes, tidal bores, Writing
Tagged Solway
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Snippets 10: stone stoops
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
Posted in coastal heritage, quarries, sandstone, Snippets, wetlands
Tagged conservation, gateposts, sandstone, Solway, stoops
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Crossing the Sulewath: A guest post by David Livermore
Two big rivers feed the head of the Solway. The Eden drains all Cumbria from Helvellyn to the Pennines, the Esk harvests a rainy quarter of the Southern Uplands. Rockcliffe Marsh separates their outlets and the OS map shows few … Continue reading
Posted in crossings & waths, Guest Posts
Tagged Solway, Sulewath, waths
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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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Piloting a ship up the Firth to Silloth
You have probably never thought what it would be like to pilot a ship: to be in charge of, say, a cargo vessel with a hold-full of sticky molasses, that is about to enter the narrow dock gates of a … Continue reading
Posted in ports, sea-bed & undersea, ships
Tagged buoys, cargo vessels, ship's pilots, ships, Silloth, Solway
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The Walls of Parton
‘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
Posted in coal, coastal heritage, fossils, industrial heritage, ports, sandstone, slag-banks, stones
Tagged coal, fossil plants, sandstone, ships, Solway
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The design of the Solway: an aerial perspective, part 2
September 2nd, 0845h: Andrew Lysser, pilot, aerial photographer, instructor, and owner of Cumbria Gyroplanes, and I lifted off from the runway at Carlisle airport in a silver-coloured gyroplane. This time I wasn’t nervous, and there was no wall of rain … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, Allonby, ports, sand, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged aerial views, gyroplane, megaripples, ripples, River Eden, Romans, Sabellaria, salt-pans, sandbanks, ships, Silloth, Solway
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Waths: fords and borders
On a very low Spring tide in August, my guide Mark Messenger and I crossed and re-crossed the Solway on foot, from England to Scotland and back. We waded across the Firth through the outgoing tide and the flow of … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, coastal heritage, crossings & waths
Tagged Annan, border crossings, boundary-stones, Edward I, Lochmabenstane, River Eden, River Esk, Solway, waths
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Loom-stones and fish-traps
“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
Posted in coastal heritage, fishing, stones, tidelines
Tagged boundary-stones, fish-trap, gyroplane, loom-stone, Romans, Solway
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Solway Shore-walker 