Sunday April 21st 2019 Part 2 - Strolling round St. Bees

Leaving Whitehaven behind I drove the four-and-a-half miles south via a 'B' road to St. Bees village where a pleasant minor road with detached houses on one side and fields on the other took me straight to the beach front and a large car park. From previous Googling I knew there was a shop/cafe at one end of the car park so I found a space as close as I could get and nipped across to get a sandwich and takeaway coffee for a very late lunch, which I ate in the van before taking the dogs for an exploration of the surroundings. 

In front of the car park was a long wide green and on one part was the 'Wainwright Wall', known to be the official starting point of Alfred Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk with an information board showing the route and other details. Several paths crossed the green and went down to a short concrete promenade just above the beach; the tide was in so I could see nothing but shingle but there may very well have been some sand there when the tide went out again. The north end of the promenade ended where a narrow stream came from somewhere inland and an equally narrow footbridge led to the path over St. Bees Head.

One of my intentions had been to walk to the lighthouse somewhere up on St. Bees Head but unable to see it from the car park or promenade I'd asked in the cafe about the distance and was told it was three miles. That may or may not have been right but if it really was three miles then to walk there and back would be too far when we'd already done a fair bit of walking round Whitehaven, so that plan was abandoned and I went to find the church and the school instead, which Jayne had previously said would be of interest.

I found the school first, a lovely red sandstone building which was obviously much larger than it looked, and though the main frontage was in shadow the sun was shining on the side of it and really enhancing the colour. Just across the access lane, and fronting the road, was another part of the school known as the Quadrangle, a three-sided building with a pleasant lawned area and a flagged path leading up to the central door.

Across the road from the Quadrangle was the Priory Church with a pair of small wooden gates leading into the churchyard and a war memorial in the corner close to the road. As I wandered round the grounds I found that the church was open to visitors; I really wanted to go in but I couldn't take Sophie and Poppie in with me and neither did I want to leave them outside, however the high wall of one of the church's annexes provided plenty of shade over the car park so taking a short cut over a couple of nearby fields I went back to get the van from the beach car park and drove back to the church. With no other vehicles in the car park and no-one else around I knew that in the shade and with the van's blinds closed and windows open the dogs would be okay if I didn't linger too long.

There were so many things of interest in and around the church that there was no way I could photograph everything without leaving the dogs for too long so I concentrated mainly on getting shots of the stained glass windows. With far too many to put on here I've selected just a few, and these and all the others can be seen here on my other blog.

After leaving a comment in the visitors' book and with time ticking on I reluctantly said a silent goodbye to this wonderful old church and set off on the drive back to the camp site, however my day of discovery was far from over. Having checked the map book I decided that instead of going back through Whitehaven and along the A595 I would go to Egremont and take the more rural A5086 through the village of Cleator Moor. And I was so glad I did as the scenery was lovely and I stopped several times along the route to hop out of the van and take a few photos.

It was almost 7pm by the time I got back to the camp site - time to make myself an evening meal and chill out until the pre-bedtime dog walk. It had been another lovely day full of interesting things and great views, and with a plan in place for the following day I had my fingers crossed that the fabulous weather would hopefully continue.