The water itself is generally benign with no notable hazards excepting some large areas of salt and mud flats, which often contain dangerous patches of quicksand that move frequently. There are over of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the area, as well as national nature reserves at Caerlaverock and in Cumbria. Salta Moss is one such SSSI. On the Cumbrian side, much of the coastline is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Solway Coast AONB is split in two parts, the first runs from just north of Carlisle in a westerly direction as far as Skinburness, and the second runs from the hamlet of Beckfoot in a southerly direction past Mawbray and Allonby as far as Crosscanonby. The honeycomb worm and blue mussel were designated as conservation targets in 2013, as Allonby Bay – an inlet of the Solway Firth – was put forward as a candidate for a Marine Conservation Zone.
The Solway Firth forms the estuary of the River Eden and the River Esk. The following rivers also flow into the firth:
in England
in Scotland
History
The name 'Solway' is of Scandinavian origin, and was originally the name of a ford across the mud flats at Eskmouth. The second element of the name is Old Norse vað 'ford'. The first element is probably Old Norse súl 'pillar', referring to the Lochmaben Stane, though súla 'solan goose' is also possible. Súl and súla both have long vowels, but the early spellings of Solway indicate a short vowel in the first element. This may be due to the shortening of an originally long vowel in the Middle English period but may also represent an original short vowel. If this is the case, the first element may be *sulr, an unrecorded word cognate with Old English sol 'muddy, pool' or a derivative of sulla 'to swill'. The three fords in the area at that time were the Annan or Bowness Wath, the Dornock Wath, and the main one was the Solewath, or Solewath, or Sulewad. In 1841 at Barnkirk Point a wooden structured light house was established. It was destroyed by fire in 1960. On 9 March 1876 a French 79 ton Lugger called the St. Pierre was stranded and finally declared lost on Blackshaw Bank, an ill-defined feature which extends for a considerable distance on both sides of the channel of the River Nith. Between 1869 and 1921, the estuary was crossed by the Solway Junction Railway on a 1780 m iron viaduct. The line was built to carry iron ore from the Whitehaven area to Lanarkshire and was financed and operated by the Caledonian Railway of Scotland. The railway was not a financial success. After the railway ceased operating, the bridge provided a popular footpath for residents of Scotland to travel to England where alcoholic drink was available. The viaduct was demolished between 1931 and 1933.
The Solway Firth has also been used for the location of films such as The Wicker Man, which was filmed around Kirkcudbright and Burrow Head on the Wigtownshire coast.
