Solway Coast

The Solway Coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in northern Cumbria, England. It incorporates two areas of coastline along the Solway Firth, the first running from just north of the city of Carlisle, at the estuary of the rivers Esk and Eden, in a westerly direction as far as Silloth-on-Solway, including the villages of Bowness-on-Solway, Burgh-by-Sands, Port Carlisle, and Skinburness. The second area begins just north of the hamlet of Beckfoot, and runs south down the coast to the southern end of Allonby Bay near the village of Crosscanonby. Included in this area are the villages of Mawbray and Allonby, and the hamlets of Dubmill, Hailforth and Salta. The hamlet of Wolsty lies just outside the AONB. Beginning at Silloth, the B5300 coast road runs in a south-westerly direction, entering the AONB just north of Beckfoot, and exiting near Crosscanonby. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales are designated as such because of their beautiful scenery. The designating body is Natural England, and the reason for the Solway Coast's designation was to conserve what is considered one of the most scenic sections of English coastline. The Solway Coast was designated an AONB because of its scenic vistas. However, the massive increase in construction of wind turbines, both off-shore and on-shore, has left many residents feeling that the area's natural beauty is being tainted. The section of coast between Silloth-on-Solway and Sellafield has recently been dubbed "Britain's Energy Coast", something which many see as being incompatible with the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. However, the increase in investment brought by the establishment of the Energy Coast, as well as the promise of new jobs for an area which has seen higher than average unemployment following the closure of mines and factories in the 1970s and 1980s, has proven popular with many residents of the area. While an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is not designed to conserve wildlife or plants, a side-effect of conserving the landscape is the protection of the habitats of several species.