SILLOTH. On The Shore Of The Silvery SolwayFirth.

CARLISLE. The Bus station, the start and end of journeys and adventures.

This weekend past I took a trip up to Silloth on the Solway Coast. It’s a place I hadn’t been to for quite a while and I had the urge to catch up with the town, to see what was as I remembered it and what might have changed.

SILLOTH. Just to let you know where you are. The signpost on the Green with the Solway Firth in the distance with the hills of Scotland .

I took the train up to Carlisle and then a short walk through the city to the bus station then it was the 400 bus out through the flat, coastal lands to the town.

Like many towns its fortunes changed with the coming of the railways, this was due to the silting up of the existing port facilities at Port Carlisle which served the city of Carlisle. So in the 1850’s a branch line was built out to the village and the harbour was built on the Solway Firth. In some ways it reminds me of Fleetwood, another town built for a specific purpose. Silloth still has a grid layout of cobbled streets and a fine stretch of elegant buildings facing the large town green that lies between the town and the promenade that faces across the Solway to Scotland.

SILLOTH. Waiting in the Starfish Cafe for my lunch to arrive.

SILLOTH. Fish chips and curry sauce, filling and just the thing for a coolish day.

Being a compact town it didn’t take long to walk around but the flip side of that meant it left me more time to do lunch and just sit and let the world go by.