On Friday 6th June, which was a beautiful sunny day, a party of ten walkers travelled by train on the scenic coastal route to St Bees. After looking at the statue of St Bega and visiting the abbey church, we made our way to the shore for the walk up on to the cliffs, where we found a sunny lunch spot overlooking the bay. Our route continued up the coastal path and down to Fleshwick Bay before reaching the highest point on St Bees Head. At one of the bird watching points, we were able to look down the cliffs to see what must have been hundreds of guillemots clustered on ledges. Skylarks sang above us and the sea sparkled below as we continued on to pass the lighthouse and eventually get a distant view of Whitehaven and  Workington.  As we descended, Whitehaven harbour was a picture with all its boats and especially the tall ship, Zebu, which was paying a short visit to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Whitehaven town and harbour. Apparently we just missed seeing the Queen as she had been in Whitehaven on the previous day attending various events. After welcome refreshments, we enjoyed another spectacular train journey home.

 Gill Gale