South Walney - Izeria

South Walney is one of two nature reserves on Walney Island, England. The nature reserve has an area of 130 ha leased from Holker estates. It has been managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust since 1963. The reserve is notable for being a colony for gulls and grey seals. The gull colony contains both lesser black-backed gulls and herring gulls. Numbers have declined considerably since the 1970s. Among the reasons for the decline has been predation. In 2021 Cumbria Wildlife Trust reported that a predator-proof fence had protected chicks at the reserve. The reserve is the only grey seal colony in Cumbria. Numbers have increased since the 1970s. Until recently South Walney was classed as a haul-out site rather than a breeding colony, but two pups were born in 2015, and 46 pups have been born since, with nine pups born in 2023 Other breeding bird species include common eider, Eurasian oystercatcher and common ringed plover. The reserve is the home of the Walney Bird Observatory which collates bird records from across the island. Around 300 species of bird have been recorded on Walney Island since the foundation of the bird observatory in 1964.

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Walney Lighthouse

Walney Lighthouse is a functioning lighthouse located on Walney Island in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The current building dates to the early 19th-century and is Grade II* listed as well as being the southernmost man-made structure in Cumbria. Completed in 1804, the stone lighthouse and its attached cottages actually predate Barrow and its port. The structure was built to replace a smaller wooden lighthouse that was constructed by the Lancaster Quay Commissioners in 1790 to aid in navigation towards the docks at Glasson close to Lancaster and the River Lune. It contained three 3-foot (0.91 m) reflectors mounted on a slowly revolving shaft; the reflectors consisted of a concave wooden frame covered with small pieces of mirrored glass. The original lighthouse was destroyed by fire in 1803 and was swiftly replaced by the lighthouse of today. The lighthouse was designed by engineer E. Dawson. The optical system (as renewed in 1846) was a clockwork-driven rotating array of four Argand lamps backed by parabolic reflectors, which gave a white flash once a minute. The lighthouse saw little change until 1909, when an acetylene gaslight system was installed, this was again changed in 1953 to a 'manned' electric light and rotation system (still with the four reflectors), flashing once every fifteen seconds. In 2003, when it was finally automated, Walney was the last manned lighthouse in England. It was also the last to be using a catoptric apparatus; that year the reflectors were replaced by a modern electric light unit.

1.8 km

Sheep Island (England)

Sheep Island is an uninhabited grassy island of around 15 acres (6 ha), located just over 1⁄4 mile (400 m) from the shore of Walney Island, opposite Snab Point. It is one of the Islands of Furness and is in Westmorland and Furness in Cumbria in northwest England. The island's geographic location is, using the British national grid reference system, SD215639. Sheep Island is accessible on foot at low tide from either Walney, or from Piel Island - a distance of about a mile (approx. 1.5 km). The island is uninhabited and there is no shelter. Between 1892 and 1922, it included a small isolation hospital located within a wooden building, which was constructed by Barrow Borough Council at a cost of £257, but rarely used.

Piel Castle

Piel Castle, also known as Fouldry Castle or the Pile of Fouldray, is a castle situated on the south-eastern point of Piel Island, off the coast of the Furness Peninsula in north-west England. Built in the early-14th century by John Cockerham, the Abbot of neighbouring Furness Abbey, it was intended to oversee the trade through the local harbour and to protect against Scottish raids. The castle was built using stones from the local beach, and featured a large keep with surrounding inner and outer baileys. It was used as a base by the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel in 1487, but by 1534 it had fallen into ruin and passed into the hands of the Crown. Sea erosion began to cause significant damage to the castle in the early 19th century. In the 1870s the castle's owner, the Duke of Buccleuch, carried out extensive restoration work and erected outworks to protect it against further damage from the sea. In 1920 the castle was given to the town of Barrow-in-Furness and is now in the care of English Heritage. The castle is at threat from continued coastal erosion.

Piel Island

Piel Island lies in Morecambe Bay, around 1⁄2 mile (800 metres) off the southern tip of the Furness peninsula in the administrative county of Cumbria, England. It is one of the Islands of Furness, three of which sit near to Piel at the mouth of Walney Channel. The island is the location of Piel Castle, built by the monks of Furness Abbey in the fourteenth century. Historically within Lancashire, the island today is owned by the town of Barrow-in-Furness, having been given to the people by the Duke of Buccleuch in 1922. The council's administrative duties also include the selection of the "King" of Piel, who is the landlord of the island's public house, the Ship Inn. Piel is about 26 acres (11 hectares) in size. The landlord and their family and three others who live in the old Ship's pilots' cottages are the island's only permanent residents.