Woodend
Self Catering Holiday Cottages

This is well worth a visit and if you find yourself going to Tesco in Millom, I recommend that you search it out.

The Hodbarrow Reserve, owned by the RSPB, is located between Millom and the village of Haverigg and is situated where the River Duddon meets the Irish Sea.

Large numbers of wading birds and waterfowl can be seen. Common, Sandwich and Little Terns can be sighted from the hide on the sea wall, oystercatchers, herons, grebes and cormorants, spotted redshank and black tailed godwits can also be seen.

It is the site of one of the largest of the West Cumbrian iron mines worked between 1848 and 1968 and produced about 25 million tons of hematite ore.

The Mine and Lighthouse

The mine is situated on the coast and to work the deposit a succession of barriers were constructed to keep back the sea. What remains now is the huge outer barrier which was constructed from slag faced with concrete blocks on the seaward side.

You can park and then walk around the sea wall, but the wall is very wide (several tens of metres in places) and you can drive around it.

The lighthouse at Hodbarrow Point is over a hundred years old, being constructed in 1866 by the mining company to aid shipping up the treacherous channel of the Duddon. The structure has a thirty-foot tower and has recently been restored with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Coming Soon!