Parton to St Bees Head

[nigheandonn]

When I arrived in Whitehaven to spend a few days between Christmas and New Year the sun was shining brightly, but possibly only to tease me, because it never managed that again. The next day was originally forecast for pouring rain all day, and I had resigned myself contentedly enough to museums, but by the morning it had settled to mostly grey gloom, and I decided that I might as well try a bit of the coast, even if the wind was possibly too wild for the cliffs.

I was staying up at the top of a hill - more or less - just beyond the edge of Whitehaven, and it was actually more direct for me to follow the road down to Parton, although a bit more nervewracking, since there was no pavement for most of the way. When I hit the main road I could have gone straight down into the village, but a road off to the right with a church and hall and roman fort looked like an interesting distraction - and was, although there was nothing to be seen of the fort but a great flat rectangle behind the graveyard.

Moresby church and hall

There's nothing very much to be seen in the village itself, although it has quite a bit of history. Where the road turns uphill the coast path leads on, still kept from the sea by the railway line, but a tunnel underneath let me get my first close view of the shore and the white waves.

The sea through the arch

Beyond the main part of the village some fairly dramatic cliffs rise up - the old houses and railway line are at the bottom, and some new houses up beyond the top. St Bees Head and the longest pier of Whitehaven harbour show behind the nearest headland

Parton cliffs

The railway runs right beside the sea round the headland - it's a good bit to do by train.

The railway line

The path round here is marked as 'Whitehaven via tramway', and the old route makes a good broad flat path, following the curve of the railway line round to the outskirts of Whitehaven to come out behind the station.

Headlands

I left the marked coast path to take my favourite route around the harbour, by the sea lock - the markings were about to vanish anyway, as they always do when I most need them. (I should look back and see how the England Coast Path is getting on with the complicated bits of Northumberland!)

The harbour always seems to be busy with boats of different kinds, and sacks of something were being loaded into a seafood lorry as I went round.

Whitehaven harbour

At the other side of the harbour things get a bit more confusing - I followed the path along below the 'candlestick' chimney (the most obvious remnant of the Wellington pit, where a bad fire happened in 1910), only to find the next part of the coast blocked off, so that I had to double back up to the chimney itself.

A great black cloud had been moving in from the sea and hanging over the headland, looking like it was about to bring heavy rain any minute, but in the end it just passed over inland, and for a while it even looked like the sun might come out.

The candlestick

This part of the coast was obviously heavily mined, and reminded me a bit of County Durham, although I was walking the wrong way with the sea on my right. The buildings of the Haig colliery, at the top of the cliff, were once a mining museum.

Haig colliery buildings

Saltom mine, down by the shoreline, was the first undersea mine in Cumbria and possibly in England.

Saltom mine ruins

Up ahead the landscape changes - a dip down from these relatively gentle slopes to the wilder cliffs leading to St Bees Head.

St Bees Head

The path turns briefly inland and uphill, then cuts over to join a narrow higher path leading round the rough cliffs ahead - sometimes very close to the drop, so that it was a good thing the wind was blowing from the sea, although I never really felt threatened.

Round the cliffs

Past a sandstone quarry the path climbs up to follow the edge of the fields for most of the rest of the trip, starting with the walk round the North Head to the lighthouse - much emptier and muddier and windier than anything which had come before. Like St Abbs, the lighthouse takes advantage of the height of the cliffs, and isn't very tall itself.

Lighthouse

Beyond the lighthouse the rain finally swept in - sideways. There are a couple of RSPB hides, but not much else to see in this kind of weather except grey sea and green fields, until you turn the corner again to see the red cliffs of the South Head in front. I did have the mild amusement of a text welcoming me to the Isle of Man, somewhere out in the clouds!

South Head

The path drops right down more or less to shore level to cross the stream at Fleswick, but it has been made into steps so it's an easy descent. The cliffs here seemed to be mining themselves, with great sandstone blocks fallen off and lying on the beach.

Disintegrating cliffs

This is the final stretch, climbing again past a patchwork of rough fields to eventually turn the corner and see St Bees ahead in the form of a caravan park. The final descent to the beach was one of the worst parts of the path, with an old stepped path disintegrating and a new one very slippery, but I made it down to the little bridge to the shore and the marker for the start of the Coast to Coast walk.

Coast to coast walk

As I was a bit too late for the 14:40 train back to Whitehaven I went to the beach cafe for a belated lunch and very welcome cup of tea - it was a nice little place, and I sat by the window until it was time to head up for the next train, by which time the weather had cleared quite a bit but dusk was falling fast.

St Bees beach