Walk: 10:45am to 3:30pm - 7.5 miles (plus walking around Whitehaven)
Our walk today took us away from the hills and out to the coast. We knew of the famous ‘Coast to Coast’ walk and as it started from around the St Bees Head area, we decided to park up in St Bees and head along the Cumbria Coastal Path to Whitehaven, crossing the start of the C2C along the way.
The weather was stunning, with only a few clouds in the sky and a light breeze, which was a godsend to keep the heat down a little. It wasn’t enough to stop me getting a few red patches of sunburn of course! My wife has the advantage of a thick head of hair to keep the sun off her head – I have to rely on a nice hat. Hair….I remember those days.
The path followed the cliff-tops very closely, too closely in some areas with narrow paths and big drops – again a couple of sections were a little hair-raising. Over the length of the walk there was around 1000ft of ascent as you traversed up and down the gently rolling hills, although it doesn't seem it when you're walking. The views were great, and as it was clear it was easy to see the Isle of Man, and Southern Scotland – Dumfries and Galloway I believe.
We arrived at the harbour area of Whitehaven around 3:30pm, which I was surprised at as I felt that the walk had taken much longer. Not sure if it was the heat, but to me it just felt longer, however my wife felt the opposite. Looking down over Whitehaven it was a lovely marina with plenty of quays and jetty’s to walk along. What was also very good was the amount of signage and places of interest relating to the long mining history of the area, lots of small bits of information written in the bricks, and flagstones, on walls.
After a walk around the harbour we headed for Tesco to grab a ‘meal deal’ and sat on the harbour-side for about 30 minutes to ‘dine’ - quickly removing our walking boots to get some fresh air to our aching feet. 3-days of walking were taking their toll. After another walk around the harbour we headed to the train station to get the train back to St Bees.
Unfortunately, when I went to the kiosk to purchase our tickets, there was a guy there who instead of doing his ticket research beforehand and then purchasing, he had the lady at the kiosk looking through all the ticket options and prices – 10 minutes in which time our train came and went!!! So, a 70 minute wait around the train station for the 17:39 to Barrow in Furness! However, it was sunny so boots off again and an hour in the sun.
Off the train at St Bees and a ½ mile walk back to the front to the car-park, and then 20 minutes drive back to the cottage. A great day, and a few drinks in the evening in the bar at Irton Hall.
More photos can be found herehere
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