Blitterlees is a small hamlet in the parish of

Holme Low Holme Low is a List of civil parishes in Cumbria, civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The parish covers a largely rural area with no significant settlements. It lies west of Carlisle. Geo ...

, one mile south of

Silloth Silloth, or Silloth-on-Solway, is a port town and civil parish in the Cumberland (district), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town stands on the coast of the Solway Firth, west of Carlisle. It was developed from the 1850s onwards a ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, United Kingdom. The hamlet of Wolsty is located approximately to the south as the crow flies, or by road, and Cumbria's county town,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

, is located to the east. The

B5300 B53 or B-53 may refer to : * B53 nuclear bomb * HLA-B53, an HLA-B serotype * Convair XB-53, an American aircraft {{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...

, known locally as the "coast road", runs through the village on its way to

Beckfoot Beckfoot is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5300 coast road, three miles south of Silloth-on-Solway and two miles north of the village of Mawbray. The county town of Carlisle is ...

Mawbray Mawbray is a village in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Cumberland. It is located on the Solway Plain, south west of Silloth, north of Maryport, and west of Carlisl ...

Allonby Allonby is a village on the coast of Cumberland in Cumbria, England. The village is on the B5300 road north of Maryport and south of Silloth. The village of Mawbray is to the north, and to the east is the village of Westnewton, Carlisle ...

, and ultimately

Maryport Maryport is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is on the coast of the Solway Firth and lies at the northern end of the former Cumberland Co ...

History and etymology

The name "Blitterlees" comes from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''blaecфorn-læs'', meaning a

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is an Old World species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is locally naturalized in parts of the New World. The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Basq ...

pasture. Previous variant spellings include Bletterliese, Bletherleese, and Bladderlies. During the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, the coast around present-day Blitterlees was fortified, as a series of milefortlets were built along the

Solway plain The Solway Plain or Solway Basin is a coastal plain located mostly in northwest Cumbria in England, extending just over the Scottish border to the low-lying area around Gretna and Annan. It lies generally north and west of Carlisle along the Sol ...

, extending beyond the western end of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

. The closest milefortlet to the settlement was milefortlet 12, which was originally constructed of earth and timber. In the 19th century, the name was spelled Blitter Lees, with a space between the two words. It was described as containing several farmhouses and being located three-quarters of a mile away from

Silloth railway station Silloth was the terminus of the Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway, a branch railway from Carlisle railway station, Carlisle, England. The town, dock and station at Silloth were built on a greenfield site after the Carlisle & Silloth Bay Railway ...

. The station was the terminus of the

Carlisle and Silloth Bay railway There were two interlinked railways on the south shore of the Solway Firth. The Port Carlisle Dock and Railway Company was opened in 1854, following the route of a former canal, intended to connect Port Carlisle, to which sea-going ships could n ...

, a single-track line which opened in 1856 and closed with the Beeching Axe in 1965. Within Holme Low, the parish which contains Blitterlees, there was a single station on the line, Blackdyke Halt, in the hamlet of Blackdyke, a mile-and-a-half to the east.

The hamlet today

The B5300 heading through Blitterlees in Cumbria - geograph

Blitterlees is home to two caravan parks, as

and the Solway coast in general are popular with tourists. The Solway Coast is also an

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

, although Blitterlees falls outside of the boundaries, in between the northern and southern sections. There is a golf course in the hamlet, and the B5300 coast road runs through the settlement. There is a local bus service which calls at Blitterlees approximately once every two hours in either direction, heading north to Silloth or southbound to

via

, and

. To the south of Blitterlees, just north of the hamlet of Beckfoot, is Bank Mill Nurseries, a garden centre with a restaurant, play area, and animal sanctuary. The nearest shops are a mile away in Silloth, and the nearest railway station is at

Aspatria Aspatria is a town and civil parish in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. The town rests on the north side of the Ellen Valley, overlooking a panoramic view of the countryside, with Skiddaw to the South and the Solway Firth to the North. Its dev ...

, eight-and-a-quarter miles to the south-east.

References

External links

{{Portal, Cumbria Hamlets in Cumbria Silloth