| The day started with a bus journey from Silloth to Abbeytown from where we hoped to walk the Skinburn and Calvo Marshes. The OS Map 1:50 shows a path through the marsh. Once on the marsh, however, you upmore appreciate that is more of a route or a direction and not a formal or clear path. Even using both OS maps and Viewranger we managed to wander off the route by a couple of hundred yards. One occasion this was because we started to follow a vehicle track before we realised what we were doing. On another occasion it was to escaped the attentions of a herd of rampaging heifers, one of three incidents. Both cattle and sheep graze freely in the marsh. |
At times, walking on the marsh was physically very difficult. Where the cattle have been grazing when it was wet, the ground is very churned up,making a consistent step impossible. In area where the path is not obvious you just need to pick your way across carefully. The ground is full of ruts and ridges,some as much as 18 inches deep. Often you are moving from the top of one gift of grass or mud to the next. The lumps of earth can be friable and may crumble beneath the boot. As well as the ruts etc., There are numerous rolls and tickets crossing the marsh that you just have to jump across. Two things were in our favoyr: one, the good weather had dried up a lot of the marsh water and, two, it was low tide.
The plan been to walk right over the marsh to the village of Skinburness, before heading down to Grune Point, overlooking the Solway Firth. However, just before crossing the wooden footbridge at Calvo, we came across a sheep in distres. Despite our efforts we could not get it back on its feet. In trying to turn it I could see a long sound on its side. There was nothing we could do for the tup, but it h had two lambs at heel another would need assistance if they were to survive. So from Calvo bridge we walked off the marsh to the farm at the end of the sea dyke and let them know.
Rather than double back on the may we stayed in the sea duke to go round the edge of Skinburness and head down one side of the peninsula to Grune Point and up the other side to continue back to our accommodation in Silloth. The views down at the point were wonderful , beautiful light and colour over both the Solway Fifth and the hills and dales of Galloway.