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RAKES LANE - Walney Island Rakes Lane runs from Biggar Village, School House Site (as can be seen in the first picture on the left) up through toward the High Cliffs. Rakes Lane allegedly was the main thoroughfare to South-end Farms, but the sea has now claimed so much of the land that the road now simply leads to a dead end. I myself have seen much of the land disappearing over time from an early age when my father used to take me on the regular annual journeys up Rakes Lane (in a car) and assess what had been lost the previous year. Trying to explain to my own children a forecast of where the coast line may well be twenty years from now if the erosion takes place at the same pace just sounds truly unbelievable.
2003 Rakes Lane today is just about impossible to navigate be car due to the overhanging hedgerows. "Rakes Lane almost impassible to motor traffic, can take you back in time, giving one of the best ways to experience Walney-Island in the days before property development had begun". (The Natural History of Walney Island - Tim Dean). The picture below is a panoramic view taken from the high cliffs at the top of Rakes Lane. The starts at the right of the picture from Black Combe and around past Biggar Village and over to the right of the picture terminating at where the Irish Sea meets the High Cliffs. Again as with many other areas of Walney erosion is a serious problem at the High Cliffs as can be clearly seen. At the time of taking the pictures for this page I was unlucky enough to come across yet another carcass of marine life washed up from the Irish Sea, this time in the form of a Grey Seal. It is believed that between only 100 and 200 Grey Seals are seen about Walney in any 12 month cycle.
2010 The lane this summer is now inaccessible by car as can be seen in the pictures below. Also as you approach the top the latest edition of the Walney wind farm is clearly visible.
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