





16 August 2013

Visit Walney Island

Hanging off the tip of the Furness Peninsula in Cumbria, and including Walney and the Victorian industrial settlement of Vickerstown within the town of Barrow-in-Furness, Walney Island is an interesting place. Eleven miles long and one mile wide, it is the 8th largest island in England, but often gets overlooked as a suburb of a town which is more famous for building submarines than it is for wildlife and nature.

Despite the rather bland settlements in the middle of the island, the southern end boasts a bird observatory and Cumbria Wildlife Trust nature reserve with views east across Morecambe Bay and to Piel Island and Sheep Island, and a distinctive lighthouse. At the northern end is another nature reserve with sand dunes, salt marsh, popular with wading birds and Natterjack Toads.

For more, see http://www.walney-island.com/

^Picture © Alexander Baxevanis used under a Creative Commons license^


  1. 8th largest in the UK? I can think of at least twice as many larger islands in Scotland!

    I see from the Walney Island website it's the 8th biggest in England. On the other hand they say it's the biggest connected to the mainland by road. I would have thought Sheppey was bigger.

  2. Sorry about that. It did say somewhere that it was the 8th largest in the UK when I wrote this late at night but I agree it seems like that's probably not true. Corrected.