Roanhead (sometimes spelled Ronhead) refers to the limestone outcrop of Roanhead Crag in Cumbria and the farmland behind it, but in recent years the term has been taken to mean the sandy beaches adjoining Sandscale Haws extending to Snab Point. [1] The Irish Sea lies to the west of Roanhead, whilst the Duddon Estuary and Walney Channel are due north and south respectively. The beach is noted for its abundance of sand dunes and strong, often dangerous coastal currents. Today the beach is a National Trust conservation area, and a two-mile stretch of the Cumbria Coastal Way runs through it.
The beach to both sides of Roanhead Crag is a breeding site for the rare natterjack toad, and the central point of a meta population of the species, which extends from Dunnerholme to Sandscale Haws. 25% of the UK's natterjack toad population resides here, and the area provides essential breeding habitat.
The area around Roanhead is an important habitat for multiple species including 600 flowering plant species, most notably the rare bee orchid, coral root orchid, pyramidal orchid, marsh orchid, harebell, centaury, rest harrow, grass of parnassus, sea holly and thyme. Over 500 species of fungi can be found around Roanhead.
Lampyris noctiluca (glow worm) have recently been recorded in the area between Roanhead crag and Sandscale Haws NNR.
There are 3 species of newt: palmate newt, smooth newt, and great crested newt. Otters have been recorded on the beach at Roanhead. The site hosts 4500 overwintering wading birds. Black backed gulls, black headed gulls and herring gulls roost in the crags. Plover (Birds of Conservation Concern red list) and lapwing (red list) nest between Roanhead Crag and the shore. Between November and February common starling murmurations can be seen before the birds roost on the wet meadow at Sandscale Haws.
Other birds include: barn owl, kestrel (amber list), marsh harrier (amber list), sparrowhawk, oystercatcher (amber list), curlew (red list), dunlin (red list), knot (amber list) sanderling (amber list), grey heron, skylark (red list), meadow pipit (amber list), snipe (amber list), turnstone (amber list), redshank (amber list), reed bunting (amber list), sedge warbler (amber list), little egret, mallard, teal wigeon, scaup, long tailed duck, great crested grebe, goldeneye, shelduck (amber list).
The Northern Colletes bee occurs at Roanhead. The species is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species.
Bats recorded at Roanhead to date include Pipistrelle Bat, Soprano Pipistrelle Bat, Noctule Bat, Brown Long Eared Bat, Whiskered Bat, Natterers Bat and Daubentons Bat. (Last recorded 2022.)
Roanhead is included in the Duddon Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, Duddon Estuary Ramsar Site, Morecambe Bay Special Area of Conservation and the Morecambe Bay & Duddon Estuary Special Protection Area. The site also includes an area of Ancient Woodland. Adjacent to Roanhead is Sandscale Haws, a National Nature Reserve.
There are signs of shotholes on Roanhead Crag, indicating that, like Dunnerholme, it has been quarried for limestone at some time. There is a small limekiln near the National Trust depot, one of two on the estate.
Myles Kennedy leased the mining rights from Thomas Sandys in 1852. [2] There may have been an earlier takenote but there is no sign of mining on the Roanhead estate on the 1850 OS map. The firm of Kennedy Brothers worked the iron mines until the last of the ore was taken from Nigel pit in July 1942 [3] The Nigel mine alone is said to have produced 11 million tons of ore. [4] It was one of several deposits on the estate. The farmhouse was moved to its present site shortly after the discovery of the Nigel deposit in 1902.
The mines left a series of subsidence craters which are now flooded. Along with the ponds left by Park mines, they are currently managed as fishing ponds by Furness Fishing Association.
The mining system at Roanhead was top-slicing, [5] which consists in the working of an orebody in horizontal slices, beginning at the top. Levels, for haulage, are established at proper intervals and, from these, raises are put up to the top of the orebody about every 50 ft. Starting at the tops of these raises drifts are run out and then, retreating toward the raise, the slice is worked back by breast stoping. The overburden or capping lying above the ore is supported on square sets or posts until a slice, or part of a slice, has been worked. The floor of the slice is then covered with slabs or plank and the supporting timbers are shot out and the capping is allowed to cave on to the timber floor.
In 1966 the Housing and Planning Committee of Dalton Urban Council refused a planning application from Lake District Estates on grounds that the land at Roanhead borders a protected area. "The setting up of a large caravan site on this land, close to the shore would vastly increase the public usage of the shore, and have an adverse effect upon the coastal dunes which are shown on the approved and review county development plan as being within a site of special scientific interest.
"Access roads leading to the site are considered to be too narrow and quite inadequate to satisfactorily carry the traffic likely to be generated by a site of the scale envisaged by the application."
Millom is a town and civil parish on the north shore of the estuary of the River Duddon in southernmost Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, about six miles north of Barrow-in-Furness and 26 mi (42 km) south of Whitehaven.
The natterjack toad is a toad native to sandy and heathland areas of Europe and the United Kingdom. Adults are 60–70 mm (2.4–2.8 in) in length, and are distinguished from common toads by a yellow line down the middle of the back and parallel paratoid glands. They have relatively short legs, which gives them a distinctive gait, contrasting with the hopping movement of many other toad species.
Furness is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness.
The Old Man of Coniston is a fell in the Furness Fells of the Lake District in Cumbria, England, and is the highest point of the historic county of Lancashire. It is at least 2,632.62 feet (802.42 m) high, and lies to the west of the village of Coniston and the lake, Coniston Water. The fell is sometimes known by the alternative name of Coniston Old Man, or simply The Old Man. The mountain is popular with tourists and fell-walkers with a number of well-marked paths to the summit. The mountain has also seen extensive copper and slate mining activity for eight hundred years, and the remains of abandoned mines and spoil tips are a significant feature of the north-east slopes.
The Duddon Estuary is the sandy, gritty estuary of the River Duddon that lies between Morecambe Bay and the North Lonsdale coast.
Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is part of Barrow-in-Furness, separated from the mainland by Walney Channel, which is spanned by the Jubilee Bridge. Walney is the largest island of the Furness Islands group, both in population and size, as well as the largest English island in the Irish Sea. Its population at the 2011 UK Census was 10,651, distributed evenly across the island's two Wards of Walney North and Walney South.
The Hayle Estuary and Carrack Gladden SSSI is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its biological interest, in west Cornwall, England, UK. It consists of three distinct parts, each of which is covered in a separate article: the Hayle Estuary, the sand-dune system of Porth Kidney Sands and the coastal headland at Carrack Gladden.
Hodbarrow RSPB Reserve is a nature reserve run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) on the edge of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is on the Duddon Estuary near the town of Millom and covers an area of 3.28 hectares.
Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape in England, is on the border between Lancashire and Cumbria, adjoining Morecambe Bay. One of the smallest National Landscapes, it covers 29 square miles (75 km2) between the Kent Estuary, the River Keer and the A6 road. It was designated in 1972.
Swirl How is a fell in the English Lake District. It stands between Coniston and the Duddon Valley in the southern part of the District. It rivals the Old Man of Coniston as the highest point within the traditional County Palatine of Lancashire.
Red Rocks (SSSI) is an area of sand dunes and reed beds at the mouth of the Dee Estuary and to the west of Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula, England.
The Solway Coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in northern Cumbria, England. It incorporates two areas of coastline along the Solway Firth, the first running from just north of the city of Carlisle, at the estuary of the rivers Esk and Eden, in a westerly direction as far as Silloth-on-Solway, including the villages of Bowness-on-Solway, Burgh-by-Sands, Port Carlisle, and Skinburness. The second area begins just north of the hamlet of Beckfoot, and runs south down the coast to the southern end of Allonby Bay near the village of Crosscanonby. Included in this area are the villages of Mawbray and Allonby, and the hamlets of Dubmill, Hailforth and Salta. The hamlet of Wolsty lies just outside the AONB. Beginning at Silloth, the B5300 coast road runs in a south-westerly direction, entering the AONB just north of Beckfoot, and exiting near Crosscanonby.
Askam and Ireleth is a civil parish close to Barrow-in-Furness in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it originally consisted of two separate coastal villages with different origins and histories which, in recent times, have merged to become one continuous settlement. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 3,632, reducing at the 2011 census to 3,462.
The firm of Harrison Ainslie & Co. was a British firm of ironmasters and iron ore merchants, selling high quality haematite from their mines on Lindal Moor to smelters in Glasgow, Scotland, South Wales and the Midlands. From a 21st-century perspective, they are more interesting as the last operators of charcoal-fired blast furnaces in Great Britain. Their furnaces were stone-built, water-powered, and much smaller than the coke-fired furnaces of the same era.
North Walney Nature Reserve is a national nature reserve on Walney Island, England. The reserve, which has an area of 646.5 ha, is notable as a habitat of natterjack toads. It is one of the sites in the Duddon Estuary which support one-fifth of the national population of the rare amphibian.
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.
There are several nature reserves in the surroundings of Nailsea, North Somerset, England, which is located at 51°25′55″N2°45′49″W.
Sandscale Haws is a national nature reserve on the Duddon Estuary, Cumbria, England. It is managed by the National Trust. Resident species include the natterjack toad.
Myles Burton Kennedy (1862–1928) was a Furness ironmaster, the proprietor of Roanhead mines, and chairman of the North Lonsdale Iron & Steel Company.