St Bees Head

 Although I was born and raised not ten miles from St Bees, I have never been to the cliff-top walk before.  I have eaten ice-creams on the beach there and looked up at the cliffs but never actually seen the view from the top.

It was a brilliantly sunny day with the sea a shimmering blue on the day that we made the trip this time.  To get there you drive to the red sandstone village of Sandwith - pronounced Sannith - and turn up a private road to a farm and, further than that, a light-house.  Parking at the farm was clear enough but not the onward path which turned out to be through a gated off section of road full of cows with suckler calves -  something one would wish to avoid.

Once through we headed for light-house and the coastal path. 

 

In the distance, the Isle of Man was dimly outlined.  Near  at hand the sea was boiling with auks - guillemots and razorbills.

The RSPB has made three secure viewpoint enclosures from which to get an angle on the vertical stacks where the birds nest.  In one of these two doughty Scots had set up camp with a telescope and long-lensed camera trained on the grassy mound topping the cliff.  If those were puffin burrows and if puffins were in residence they were in position to record the evidence.  We never saw them.

What we did see was guillemots crowded on the narrow ledges.

And gulls feeding large chicks on the grassy tops.

We saw fulmars in flight and even a gannet cruising past.  

We certainly smelt the guano from all the seabirds.

And then we drove down to the beach and enjoyed an ice-cream.