St Bees Head

St Bees Head is a wild headland on the Cumbrian coast, the only stretch of Heritage Coast in North West England. It stands between the village of St Bees and the town of Whitehaven, where cliffs rise to 90 metres above the sea. Two long-distance paths, the Cumbria Coastal Way and Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk, follow the cliff edge with views inland to the Cumbrian mountains. The North Head is the westernmost point of Northern England and holds St Bees Lighthouse, still operating but now unmanned. Nearby lie the ruins of a wartime radar station and a disused foghorn building. The cliffs and sea are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Marine Conservation Zone. The RSPB runs a bird reserve here where kittiwakes, fulmars, guillemots and puffins nest each summer. Black guillemots breed nowhere else in England, while peregrines and ravens hunt along the cliffs. Observation stations along the North Head path let visitors watch the seabird colonies. Below the cliffs, climbers use bolted routes on the sandstone, and a wave-cut platform at low tide reveals bouldering areas. Between the headlands lies Fleswick Bay, reached only on foot or by boat, with a shingle beach backed by high sandstone cliffs. St Bees Beach below the village is edged by nine groynes to slow longshore drift, and its mud cliffs expose glacial moraines. The red Permian sandstone, rich in mica, sparkles in sunlight and has been quarried for centuries. Wildflowers such as sea pink and rock sea lavender grow on the cliffs, while bloody cranesbill and wood vetch colour the cliff tops in summer.