Bowness-on-Solway

The extensive sands at Bowness, with their views across the Solway Firth to Scotland, are very popular with summer visitors and the abundant bird life here is another good reason to visit.

Hadrian’s Wall continues along the Solway coast to Bowness and many of the sandstone cottages around here include stones from the wall. Some of these stones can easily be identified, such as the small inscribed altar let into a barn near the King’s Arms. The Roman fort of Maia once covered a seven-acre site, but today there is only a plaque explaining where it used to be. Bowness is sometimes said to be the end of the Wall, but, in fact, it just turned a corner here and continued south along the coast for another 40 miles.

Two miles south of the village lies Glasson Moss National Nature Reserve, a lowland raised mire extending to 93 hectares. Many species of sphagnum moss are to be found here, and the birdlife includes red grouse, curlew, sparrow hawk and snipe.

Available Guidebooks for this region:

Digital Editions by county of the Hidden Places Guides are available Free of Charge. To download please Click Here