Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

A Shared Responsibility for a Very Special Place

Situated in the coastal town of Silloth-on-Solway

The Solway Coast Rambles
Five Circular Walks around the Roman Frontier.

The book has been published by the Solway Coast AONB team to coincide with the opening of the Hadrians Wall Path National Trail.

The five themed circular walks all radiate from the Trail and are a celebration of the natural and cultural heritage of the Solway Coast.

The books have been stocked in a number of visitor attractions and tourist information centres towards the end of the summer season and have proved to be very popular with walkers, especially those who are attempting to cover part or all of the National Trail.

The books are available for sale at £5 per copy. For postage and packaging add 50p.

Exploring Wildflowers of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Exploring Wildflowers costs £3.50 and can be purchased from the Discovery Centre TIC, other TIC's and some bookshops (Bookends, Carlisle, and the New Bookshop in Cockermouth).

You may also download Exploring Wildflowers in pdf format (3mb).

Cycling around the Solway Coast

5 do-in-a-day rides on easy to follow routes from Silloth, Kirkbride and Carlisle.

Cycling around the Solway Coast costs £2.50 and can be purchased from Silloth Discovery Centre TIC, Maryport and Cockermouth TIC's.

Birdwatching in the Solway Coast AONB

Following on from the successful booklet, 'Exploring the Wildflowers of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty', Brian Irving, AONB Manager, has produced, 'Birdwatching in the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'.

The booklet provides a photographic record of some of the birds to be seen in and around the AONB, and where to find them. Using his own photographs to illustrate it, it is an ideal accompaniment for anyone interested in finding out where best to see the birdlife of the Solway.

Birdwatching in the Solway Coast AONB can be extremely rewarding both for the novice and the experienced. Estuaries are driven by the twice daily force of the tide and this alone creates a dynamic backcloth where birds are moved from their feeding grounds onto their roosting areas. The wintering birds are generally arctic breeders that winter in the milder conditions of the Solway although some move further south, even as far as the African continent. These passage migrants use the Solway Coast as a staging point where they take the opportunity to feed before moving to higher latitudes in spring and lower latitudes in the autumn. Summer breeding birds on the Solway are also noteworthy.

The range of bird species that visit the Solway is dominated by the thousands of migratory waders and wildfowl that over-winter. The total population of the Svalbard breeding barnacle goose winter on the saltmarshes surrounding the estuary. Pink footed geese, whooper swans and various dabbling ducks such as pintail, wigeon, shoveller and teal can be found throughout the inner estuary in large numbers. Wading birds like dunlin, oystercatcher, golden and grey plover, turnstone and curlew add to the spectacle.

Birds of prey are common and outside of the breeding season include peregrine, merlin, short eared owl and hen harrier.

Breeding birds like shelduck, snipe, lapwing, redshank and many others provide a constant backdrop of birdlife throughout the spring and summer. Behind the coastal areas lies the agricultural land and the lowland raised mires where many birds breed.

The Solway CoastAONB has something to offer the birdwatcher all year round and through using our new book 'Birdwathcing on the Solway Coast AONB' we hope that your excursions will be enhanced and made all the more enjoyable. (Brian Irving)

If you would be interested in stocking the guidebooks, or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Sue McMillan at Susan.McMillan@SolwayCoastAONB.org.uk