Friday 25th July 2025
It took around 2 hours 20 minutes to drive down the M74 and then through northern Cumbria to get to Silloth on the Solway Firth coast.
Rain stalked us for a large part of the journey but it was surprisingly dry in Silloth when we arrived.
We pulled into Solway Holiday Park and followed the email instructions to report to the main reception who sent us round to the touring reception.
We were directed to pitch up anywhere under the trees in the touring area, no electric hookup while we exercise our leisure battery a bit.
We reversed in onto a grass pitch and we were level, it was a bit frantic with kids running around, and in one case, one darted out and nearly under the van.
We wandered round to the Borders restaurant and ordered food, I had a Thatchers Haze, Gayle opted for Wild Berries Rekorderlig - both were nice and cold.
I had their teriyaki beef sizzler with rice which was great, the beef was really nice and the onions and peppers were perfectly cooked, the rice might have been a quick microwave cook but it was fine.
Gayle had their cheese burger which was fine the fries were nice but a little cooler than was preferable.
I had a strawberry cheese cake for dessert which was pretty good.
After dinner we went for a walk along the promenade to Silloth, it was breezy but still comfortable enough in T-shirt and shorts, the tide was mostly out but had started coming back in.
The views over the Firth are impressive, the sun peeking through the clouds and the Dumfries and Galloway coast opposite, it’s a really lovely walk.
We walked almost as far as the Harbour before turning and heading into the town further and it’s a nice wee town, we stopped off in the ever present Co-Op and grabbed some items and wandered back to the site.
We were sitting discussing heading to bed, it was noisy but not too bad, but suddenly a football came crashing off the window.
We jumped out the van and there were a couple of groups kicking a ball around, the kids ran and I grabbed the ball.
Security were called, they were sympathetic but clearly a bit overworked they did tell the folks to quit playing football (apparently there’s an area for playing on the site).
After a bit of discussion, we booked Moffat for Saturday night - we were supposed to be booked for two nights at the Holiday Park, but again we cut a trip short.
Saturday 26th July 2025
After last night we were up quite late, we did have a nice breakfast in the Borders restaurant.
We pulled out of the site and parked up on the grass on the edge of the town centre and Wandered into the town along the promenade.
Grey overcast but with sun trying hard to peek through.
It was “Soul on the Green” - a local music festival and crowds were arriving and the central green was setup, it looked great, and we did consider staying for it.
We popped back into the Co-Op for some more Brysons of Keswick bits, Plum bread and Cumbrian fruit cake.
We headed off towards Moffat - I had managed to book the wrong day - Sunday rather than Saturday night but it was fixed really easily when we arrived, we were on pitch 114 which only a few along from the first time we pitched up at this site.
We headed out into the town and despite it being the fourth time we had stayed there, we still managed to have lunch in a new place (for us) the Rumblin’ Tum - A haggis panini for me, and Gayle had a tuna and cheese panini, both were really good.
Back to the van via Co-Op and we had a relaxing afternoon reading, it was warm and dry.
Around 7pm we set off for food, neither of us were particularly hungry so we wandered around unsure of what to get and eventually we picked up sandwiches in Co-Op and had a relaxing evening reading until bed time.
Sunday 27th July 2025
We woke just before 8am, really good sleep, it was lightly raining so we had a light breakfast, watched a bit of YouTube before packing up and emptying the toilet etc.
We did consider staying another night, but the weather wasn’t looking like it would improve and so we headed off up the M74.
We really liked Silloth as a town, and there’s another site “Stanwix Park” which was full for this weekend, but gets good reviews, we both agreed that the Solway Holiday Park’s facilities are pretty good, the area around the restaurant/bar is really good, and it included passes for some of the facilities, so it was well worth the money, it was just really busy and we didn’t want to be trying to relax while folks were kicking balls around the van.
It’s unfortunate that there was a lot of grass around our particular pitch which seemed to be an invitation to kick a ball around, it hasn’t put us off Silloth at all.