Walney Island - 30th March 2008

Sunday 30th March 2008

Last Sunday we were in the snow at Tarn Hows, this Sunday was a complete change in the weather. As if to mark the beginning of British Summer Time, the sun shone and it was a beautiful day for our walk around the southern end of Walney Island adjacent to Barrow-in-Furness.

Walney Lighthouse was the last manned station in the country, automated in 2003.

The ruins of Piel Castle, an outpost of Furness Abbey built 1327. Piel Island is notable as being the launching point for the last invasion of England in 1486 by Lambert Simnel and his followers. The landlord of the pub on the island still gets anointed and is granted the title 'King of Piel' following on from Simnel himself who declared himself as such. Wordsworth wrote of Piel in 1805:

I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile!
Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee:
I saw thee every day; and all the while
Thy Form was sleeping on a glassy sea.

So pure the sky, so quiet was the air!
So like, so very like, was day to day!
Whene'er I looked, thy Image still was there;
It trembled, but it never passed away.

Piel Castle from the beach. The ruins of the old wooden jetties used for sand, gravel and salt extraction at the turn of the 20th century are in the foreground. If this industry had been more successful, there would have been another town down here according to plans.

Thankfully there isn't and instead there is a lovely unspoilt coastline.

Barrow Offshore Windfarm.

Louise and Connie negotiate the rocky beach.