Barrow-in-Furness; Monday, 29 June, 2015

Breakfast completed I checked out and headed over to the main bus stops in town to pick up a bus out to Furness Abbey.

The ruins of the abbey are located on the edge of town and, despite being deliberately made uninhabitable after the reformation, substantial parts still survive. I had a long wander round the site before taking the footpath along the small river that runs through site back into Roose where I picked up the bus back into Barrow.

I headed back to the hotel and picked up my luggage before wandering up to the station to pick up my train for the first leg of the journey home.

For a journey south it may appear a little odd to be heading North, but the railway line between Barrow and Carlisle is one of the most scenic in England, so as I was in this part of the country I’d routed myself back to London on an early evening train from Carlisle and this was my way of getting there.

The train runs along the edge of the bay round to the town of Millom where it then heads up the coast towards Seascale and its slightly more (in)famous neighbour Sellafield.

By the time we reached Sellafield it was clearly shift end time as the train filled almost to capacity, which then emptied again over the next couple of stops towards Whitehaven.

Beyond Whitehaven the line hugs a narrow strip of land between the sea and the cliffs which make for some spectacular views, even on an afternoon where the sea is a long way out and dead calm.

We finally pulled into Carlisle about 2 ½ hours after leaving Barrow and with about 15 minutes for me to make my connection onto the much faster train south back to London.