RockCliffe
The village is at the head of a sheltered bay on the shores of The Solway Firth. The village has an attractive sandy beach, interspersed by rocky outcrops and is a popular visitor destination with a large free car park at entrance to the village. It is served by the 372 bus.
Rockcliffe is little more than a collection of houses though there is a well screened caravan/camp site on one side of the bay.
There are a variety of scenic coastal walks leading from the village. A local favourite is the Jubilee Path to Kippford. At the north end of the village, near the public conveniences, go right then first left. This road takes you past the Baron’s Craig and where the road ends there is a map showing different waymarked paths. From here, there is a path to the Mote of Mark, the site of a 5th Century hill fort.
Go in the other direction (i.e. south) from the main car park, rejoin the road, turn left and left again, and the road eventually takes you to a path which will lead you to Castle Point and eventually to Sandyhills. Beside the path, before you reach the field round the side of which you go to reach Castle Point, is Nelson’s Grave, a memorial to a drowned sailor who was washed ashore here in 1791. A few years back, with the aid of the E.ON Robin Rigg Community Fund the Colvend and Southwick Community Council, it was arranged for the grave to be renovated and an interpretation board erected. An old edition of Tide Lines, the magazine of the Solway Firth Partnership, carries an article on Joseph Nelson and the local involvement in his memorial’s renovation.
The Francis Frith Collection has a number of photographs of Rockcliffe in the 1960s available for purchase.
