Grune Point and Skinburness Marsh

Situated to the north east of Silloth, Grune Point is an excellent place to see all kinds of birds at any time of the year. During the spring and summer, the vast stands of gorse come alive with the songs of warblers and other small birds while skylarks and meadow pipits sing from on high. Wading birds such as ringed plover and oystercatcher nest and as autumn approaches, these are joined by huge numbers of other waders. During the winter months, dunlin, bar-tailed godwit and redshank frequent the edges of the sand and shingle spit during high tide while they wait to get back to their feeding areas on the sand and mud adjacent to Skinburness marsh after the tide drops off. Skinburness marsh is also a great place to see wintering wildfowl, pink-footed and barnacle geese alongside wigeon and teal, are often grazing the saltmarshes while cormorants can be seen “hanging” their wings out to dry. Offshore, large rafts of pintail, scaup and other ducks are quite common and divers and grebes are seen regularly.