St Bees Head

St Bees Head has appeared on many blippers journals over the years so we thought we’d better go and look what all the fuss was about. Now we can see why, this may be the first time but it won’t be the last. Isn’t it magnificent?

We did the 7 mile round trip to the quarries then back inland to pick up the coast path at Fleswick back to the beach. There are not many seabirds nesting on these cliffs yet, some guillemots, kittiwakes and fulmars were perched or wheeling around. On the other side of this cliff it appeared every ledge was smeared by an grey mass of closely packed guillemots. Out at sea there were thousands of birds bobbing around on these cliffs yet water.

We posed at the C2C start board as if we were just setting off. We did see three heavily ladened people striding out purposefully at the beginning of their journey. Other than that I think we saw only 8 or 9 other people on the whole walk and three of those were near to the beach.

It proved a challenge to find any lunch. In the end we found a pub in St Bees itself which was just alright. The beach cafe was only doing takeaways as it was being renovated by new owners. Passed by the St Bees signalbox. May be next time I might knock on the door!

The views of the Western Fells from the headland were spectacular as you can see from the extra. The whole walk reminded me of the route over Marwick Head in The Orkneys last May. So similar right down to the rock colour and formations: https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3235001208758339682 Well Marwick was not red like these but is a lot of red sandstone on Orkney. Exactly one year ago to the day

I forgot to mention yesterday’s bird count, two cuckoos, several swifts, a short eared owl and house martins nesting outside our flat.