ENVIRONMENT PAGE 2

The Solway Coast

1.  Salt Marsh Coast        Top of Environment Page

"This lonely landscape, sculptured by the sea is only disturbed by the rush of the wind and the haunting cry of the curlew."

The Salt Marsh Coast is an expansive landscape stretching from Grune point in the west to Rockcliffe in the east.

Although sheep have been grazing the rich grasses of the salt marshes for centuries, the landscape still looks much like as it would have done after the last ice age first carved out the estuary.

A visit to the marshes conjures a sense of wilderness and melancholic beauty. The salt marshes and mud flats are a very productive area, teeming with life, particularly the vast flocks of ducks and geese which feed, breed and roost in the area. Both the mud flats and marshes have been given international protection for their wildlife importance.

The quiet village of Bowness on Solway hides a fascinating past. This was the Roman fort of Maia, the end of Hadrian's Wall. Further along the coast towards Carlisle lies Port Carlisle, so-called because of the Victorian deep-water dock which served the Border City via a canal and later a railway.

Avenues of majestic windswept beech trees add to the character of this wild lonely environment.

2.  Agricultural Land       Backup   Top of Environment Page

"A Patchwork of rolling fields, bordered by the dark ribbon of ancient hedgerows: This is the landscape woven by over a thousand years of farming."

Farming has long been the greatest influence on the landscape of the Solway. Royal forests originally covered vast areas of the Solway Plain by the 1400s the demand for new farmland had caused large areas to be cleared. Today, accounts for the greatest proportions of the AONB. 

The area is very attractive with charming villages scattered among small fields and rolling pastures. Many of the original field boundaries and the stone built 'kests', or hedge banks, remain. The distinctive and local red sandstone is also found in centuries old gate stoops (posts) and traditional  barns.

Hedgerows and field margins are homes to badgers, foxes, voles, hedgehogs and all the familiar characters of England's countryside.

The beauty of this place has been moulded by generations carving a living from the land. However, new demands and pressures on farmers have put this beauty at risk and careful management is needed to ensure the survival both of the countryside we know and of this way of life.

3.  Sand Dune Coast       Backup   Top of Environment Page

"Miles of walks along undulating dunes, their shape echoing the waves on the wide firth beyond."

In the Summer the sand dune coast of the western arm of the AONB is bright with the many flowers which flourish on the sandy soils. Amongst the grass, underfoot, is thyme, the spiny rest harrow, yellow kidney vetch, and pale blue harebells. In autumn the mossy hollows sprout mushrooms and toadstools.

The sound of the summer is the skylark, high overhead, singing over his grassland territory. At dusk barn owls quarter the heath and hollows, looking for the voles and rabbits that live here. Pass through the dunes to the shore and you will see lapwing, oystercatcher and curlew sweeping the intertidal flat.

These habitats are fragile and easily damaged. Managing the dunes is a delicate balance between preserving the dunes and helping people to enjoy them.

4.  Raised Mires      Backup   Top of Environment Page

"When the air is still in summer, the heat haze rises from the heather, while jewelled dragonflies hawk and hunt among the silent pools."

Lowland raised mires are peat bogs, a domed cushion of sphagnum and other mosses which 'float' on the saturated ground beneath. Water it the element that keeps these complex habitats alive.

These sites, including Glasson Moss and Bowness Common are extremely rare and valuable wildlife reserves. Such is their scarcity that collectively the Solway Plain contains the most extensive areas of lowland raised mires in Britain which are designated as both SSSI's and National Nature Reserves.

In early summer the mires explode into life with butterflies and moths, such as the ringlet, feeding on the nectar of the purple heather. The heather also supports a population of red grouse which is the only colony of this bird at sea level in the British Isles. Here can be found all three types of British sundew, a tiny plant that traps and digests insects on leaves covered with sticky tentacles.

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