The following blog was written by Andy Deacon who talks about a volunteer walk on the reserve on 11 Dec 2013.
Volunteers who have helped at RSPB Hodbarrow during 2013 enjoyed an interesting guided walk on Wednesday lead by Karen Pugh who is the Museum Officer at Millom Discovery Centre (They have a brilliant website http://millomdiscoverycentre.co.uk/) .
Karen leading the walk (Photo:Andy Deacon)
The transformation of the former iron ore mine to a nature reserve has hidden much of the physical evidence, so Karen had brought maps, photographs and documents that enabled us to see the location of past buildings, mine shafts and railway lines. There is always something new to learn about Hodbarrow's history, for example we discovered that the "old" subsided stone sea wall was in fact preceded by a wooden structure. Also surprising was that there were once cottages at the one of my favourite spots just down the path from the old windmill where the Cumbria Coastal Way meets the beach on the estuary with stunning views. An idyllic spot to live, but the lack of mains utilities must have been its downfall.
One of the group explained that the Hodbarrow miners had discovered that land on the site had been used for pre-historic burials. The red iron rich soil would have been used to colour the deceased's skin. The bones had been re-buried at Hodbarrow point and recovered quite recently for safe storage in the Discovery Centre.
After a couple of hours in the cold fine weather we were treated by Mhairi to home made soup, mince pies and a slide show back at the Millom Network Centre.
Thank you Mhairi and Karen for a very enjoyable walk.