A Day Trip to Barrow in Furness and Walney Island

Two years ago we had planned to have a day trip to Barrow-in Furness and then walk on Walney Island. Originally our plan was to go by train from Carlisle to Barrow and then to Lancaster and from there back to Carlisle on the West Coast main line so completely circumnavigating Cumbria.It was of course delayed due to Covid-19 and eventually we went on Wednesday this week. That circumnavigation  proved to be too expensive so it was just a return ticket to Barrow costing £14 each. On arrival at Barrow Station we immediately came upon this statue of Barrow's most famous sportsman Emlyn Hughes the footballer.

After about a mile walk we crossed the bridge over to Walney Island just as the weather started to get worse. The middle section of the bridge lifts to allow large ships to pass through

The main employer in barrow is BAE Systems who build Nuclear Submarines.

It was high tide so their was plenty of water between Barrow and Walney Island

After another mile walking from the bridge we reached the sea and by this time it was windy and wet, but Tom insisted on dipping his feet in the sea so John and I left him to get on with it. 

John and Tom with Emlyn Hughes. The journey to Carlisle had been very quiet with few passengers on The Northern Service Train from Carlisle and for about half of the journey we were able to see the Solway Firth. The journey back was much busier as we picked up a load of passengers at Sellafield and dropped them off at Whitehaven and Workington. When we left Carlisle Station it was very quiet but on our return at 5.00pm it was very busy and we soon discovered why. 

 

The Flying Scotsman had made a special excursion to Carlisle along the Settle Line from Yorkshire and Lancashire and it was departing back from Carlisle around 5.00pm and as we headed to the Car Park to pick up Tom's car it was just shunting back into the station to pick up its passengers. 

We only had a few seconds to catch it going past but it was certainly a wonderful sight. 

Altogether a wonderful day despite the poor weather with a 6 mile walk and then seeing The Flying Scotsman at Carlisle and we finished up by having a grand meal at the Eskdale Hotel on our return to Langholm.