The Cumbrian coast is often unfairly overlooked. With the Lake District so close by providing a handy beacon to visitors from far and wide, the county’s coastline is completely devoid of the the hordes of tourists that you find clustered on the shores of Lake Windermere and Derwentwater. It’s almost a shame, as the beaches here are beautiful: some sandy, some pebbly, all mostly deserted. However I’m not going to complain as it means we usually have the beach to ourselves!
We tend to keep a few beaches up our sleeve as a back up plan for rainy days in the Lakes: it’s much nicer to have a quick walk on the beach in the rain, where the dogs can let off plenty of steam and you’re back in the car after half an hour, than it is to drag yourself up a wet and slippy fell side into a cloud (usually attached to a dog who’s trying to drag you in the opposite direction).
The weather during our last weekend in the Lakes was a bit of a washout (what else would you expect in the Lake District in July). After one unexpectedly lovely day, which we used to bag Helvellyn and a few other Wainwrights, it all went downhill and culminated in about 48 hours of non-stop torrential rain. On our last morning, it was raining so hard that we could barely see 10 metres in front of us. We therefore ditched our original plan of heading to Whinlatter Forest in favour of a drive over to the coast, where the forecast was significantly better. This time we picked Allonby beach, which is a mix of sand and pebbles located about half way between Maryport and Silloth.
Normally, Allonby has one of the best backdrops of all the Cumbrian beaches, with fantastic views across the Solway Firth to the hills of Dumfries and Galloway. On this occasion they were a hazy outline mostly hidden by a film of drizzle, but it still lent a soggy outing to the beach a rather moody and dramatic air. There’s plenty of free parking off the road running parallel to the beach, and it’s a short walk across the dunes to get to the beach itself. We spent about 20 minutes exploring the shore here (which we had mostly to ourselves), including a brief but intense rain shower which thoroughly soaked us, before heading back to the car to set off for home.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This is a fab dog friendly beach – dogs are welcome year round and when we visited on a Sunday in July (albeit a rainy Sunday in July) we only had to share it with two other dog walkers. There are no stiles to worry about as the beach is accessed almost immediately from the parking area. The perfect place to get your zoomie on!
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