Skinburness

Grid Ref : 124558

Skinburness is a small hamlet a mile north of Silloth, consisting of houses and a hotel. There are wonderful extensive views over the sea to Dumfries and Galloway beyond. The surrounding area is one of Special Scientific Interest, with miles of unspoilt coastline affording wonderful opportunities for walking and bird watching.

North of Skinburness, Grune Point is a sandy, raised shingle beach approximately one mile long, from Skinburness to its furthest extent. Its western side is exposed to the Solway and prevailing westerly winds. To the eastern side, which is more sheltered, is Skinburness saltmarsh.

Grune Point along with other areas of vegetated shingle along the coast supports a community of specialist vegetation, including sea sandwort, sea holly and sand couch-grass. It is also a good migration watchpoint for warblers and hirundines. Check tide times in the local papers – bird watching is better around high tide, but it can flood some local roads. Believe the warning notices!

The Allerdale Ramble is a 55 mile walk through the Lake District and along the West Cumbrian coast, from Seathwaite in Borrowdale, to Grune Point north of Silloth.

An interesting building standing on the shingle beach where boats would come ashore. Early origins are uncertain but by the late 1700s it had become the Greyhound Inn. The shore was an ideal place for landing smuggled goods, particularly whisky from Scotland and it is likely the inn colluded in this trade. The Inn closed sometime in 1860s becoming a private hotel and later converted to private residences.

At grune point, and marking the end of the Allerdale Ramble, is the “Cumberland Machine-Gun and Anti-Tank Rifle Emplacement” – a design of pill-box unique to what was Cumberland. The cairn on top was added later as a memorial to four Silloth Firemen who drowned while trying to rescue a wildfowler.

At low tide the remains of Hudson AM 771, which crashed on take-off from Silloth airfield during WWII, can be seen inMoricambe Bay, near Grune Point.