The river and old harbour area, home to more leisure craft than commercial vessels nowadays.

This is where the River Derwent, that has it's source at Sprinkling Tarn and which flows through Keswick, finally meets the sea.

The blue land sheds are next to the modern wet dock for the port, which can handle up to 12,000 ton vessels.

Not as busy as years back but the port is still active, with the main imports / exports from Workington Harbour

being as varied as steel, timber, petrolatum products, perlite, equipment for Sellafield and general cargo.

The building nearest to the yellow boat is the RNLI Lifeboat House.

We parked at the end of road, close to the harbour beacon, along with quite a lot of other people.

After a quick look around (and a photo on a rock) we set off up the grassy slope next to the car park.

The view back down to the docks, with wind farms and in the distance, the Cumbrian Fells.

- - - o o o - - -

It turns out  that the rumours are true, the whole of the high ground close to the coast at this point is artificial,

a waste tip from 100 years of heavy industry which built and grew the town from early in the industrial revolution.

Recent work by Wildlife and environmental organisations has started to make the bare grassland that covers it a little more productive.

The "rolling downs" of Workington with St Bees Head in the distance.

Behind the harbour are the wind farms and the Iggesund Paper Factory, which makes paper and card for the packaging trade.

You may have used their products which they transform from wood pulp into paper and boxes, for perfumes to whisky and sweets to grocery products.

In recent years they have converted their power station, capable of producing enough power to supply Carlisle, to burning wood chip in a biomass plant.

There's a fine view from up here today, stretching across the trading estate and houses all the way to the high fells.

The long buildings here housed some of the old steel works factories that supported the town for so many years.

Dylan and Dougal seem to attract people wherever they go.

These guys were out on a walk from town and wanted their pictures with the dogs.

Over the fence, marked dangerous cliffs, was not the sea but a huge quarry.

Click here or on the photo above for a slightly larger version of this picture.

It was easy enough to climb to this point and too early to return to the car, so we headed down the other side of the slope.

The area of town below is known as Moss Bay and a company, Moss Bay Metals still exists to this day.

Looking back at the headland and you can begin to appreciate just how much material was dumped here over the centuries.

A second and lower hill gave us a view south to Harrington Harbour

and of the coast railway that joins Carlisle, the Cumbrian west coast town and Sellafield, to the main line at Lancaster.

We've turned now and started our way back.

I walked closer to the edge this time and you could start to appreciate that the headland geology is certainly not natural.

An interesting article by R W Barnes, 1950's slag tipping in operation	. . . and another by Solway Shore-walker  The Volcanoes of Workington

On the section of coast where we are standing it was molten slag that had been tipped over the centuries, and what I saw earlier

and thought at first to be a circular sea anchor for shipping, could well have been a ladle for carrying slag as in the photo above.

If you are at all technically minded do come back to both of the above links, as they tell of the history and reasons behind the headlands.

In there too are tales of how trains dumped the molten slag and of the rail disaster when one man lost his life working on the tip.

Back to today's sunny walk and we are at the Crucifix once again.

On the west coast of Cumbria Scotland is never far away and today Criffel stands out well, its outline and fields seen with quite a lot of detail.

A slight diversion on the way back as we head down the old fence line to the shore.

The poor nature of the soil can be seen . . . as could an old jetty.

Could it be this was an old harbour wall before the tip was extended . . . its origins are a mystery at this point in time.

Out on the end of the present harbour wall is the light house and harbour lookout.

She descended first and re-joined the dogs on the ground floor which gave this unusual perspective.

Looking down I noticed an observation  marker on the floor, an observation post without a post !

It gave viewpoint directions and landmarks that may or may not be seen from here.

Unusually there's a second twenty feet away on the northern side, with subtley different headers.

The end of the walk and so time for the dogs to get on board.

Despite his poorly front leg, Dylan is still quite capable of jumping up . . . just a little help jumping down is sometimes appreciated.