Drigg is a village on the coast of the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

in the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

district of the county of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England. It borders the

Lake District National Park The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

. Next to the village is the site of the UK's low-level radioactive waste storage facility.

Geography

Drigg sits to the north of the River Irt, with Carleton to the south of the river. The river runs from

Wastwater Wast Water or Wastwater () is a lake located in Wasdale, a valley in the western part of the Lake District National Park, England. The lake is almost long and more than wide. It is a glacial lake, formed in a glacially 'over-deepened' valley. ...

lake and joins the River Mite just before it enters the

. There are three bridges over the Irt within the parish; the

A595 road The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in Northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton. It passes Sellafield and Ravenglass before ending at the Dalton-in-Furness by-p ...

bridge at Holmrook, the Cumbrian Coast Line railway bridge at the head of the tidal estuary near Ravenglass, and a footpath via an old

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridg ...

at Drigg Holme. Sand dunes soil is by the coast, and a freely draining loamy soil dominates the rest of the parish.

Beach and sand dunes

Since 1996, of the Drigg coast has been a designated

Special Area of Conservation A special area of conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

. The fixed sand dunes are categorised as a "priority feature". The small bar-built estuary is described as "one of the most natural and least developed in the UK, with little industry and few artificial coastal defence structures". A 2007 survey found Drigg beach to be stoney at high tide from Carl Crag to Kokoarrah Scar and backed by sand dunes. The beach exposed at low tide was sand; with mud and sand at the lower foreshore. This area was frequented by both locals and holidaymakers. Barn Scar was found to be popular for collecting

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

, whereas Kokoarrah Scar was normally inaccessible on foot as it was surrounded by seawater. From Kokoarrah Scar to Drigg Point the beach was sandy with patches of stones, and less used. Drigg Point marks the River Esk estuary. Since 2013 the coastline at Drigg has been designated a

Marine Conservation Zone A Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) is a type of marine nature reserve in United Kingdom, UK waters. They were established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) and are areas designated with the aim to prot ...

, as part of the Cumbria Coast. Kokoarrah rocky scar inter-tidal zone supports a variety of marine organisms. In 2018 following a shift in the level of sand a shipwreck was discovered on Kokoarrah beach. Floor plank timber from the wreck was British oak. Tree-ring dating showed the trees were felled after 1777 and the vessel was late 18th century or early 19th century. The area of

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

at Drigg are annotated on early Ordnance Survey maps as Drigg Common, with a rabbit warren noted on the seaward edge.

Inland

Hallsenna Moor is a National Nature Reserve of lowland heath and peatland. Drigg Holme Packhorse Bridge - geograph

History

ROF Drigg

A Royal Ordnance Factory was established at Drigg in 1941. The site was chosen because the area was sparsely populated and to minimise the risk of German bombing. It was engaged in the production of

Trinitrotoluene Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and help ...

(TNT), reaching a weekly output of 400 tons. The factory was closed in 1945 following

Victory over Japan day Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Surrender of Japan, Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war End of World War II in Asia, to an end. The ...

Drigg and Carleton civil parish

The

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Drigg and Carleton comprises the areas and settlements of Drigg, Stubble Green, Low Moor, Carleton, Saltcoats, Maudsyke, Wray Head, Hallsenna and Holmrook. Prior to the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The act followed the reforms carried out at county leve ...

Carleton was a constablewick in the ancient parish of Drigg. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 449. The parish council meets monthly in the village hall. Cumberland Council provides most local services. Drigg and Carleton is within the Cumberland unitary authority ward of Millom Without. From the 2024 general election the parish is within the Whitehaven and Workington UK parliamentary constituency. It was previously within Copeland constituency. Neighbouring parishes are

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

Seascale Seascale is a village and civil parish on the Irish Sea coast of Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland. The parish had a population of 1,754 in 2011, barely decreasing by 0.4% in 2021. History The place-name indicates that it was i ...

, Muncaster and Irton with Santon.

Transport links

Drigg railway station is on the Cumbrian Coast Line. Southbound trains run to

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

and northbound to

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It is a port on the north-west coast, and lies outside the Lake District National parks of England and Wales, National Park. ...

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

. The Victoria Hotel stands in close proximity to the railway station; it was built soon after the railway arrived in 1849. As of 2023, the only bus service in the parish is a dial and ride service to local villages and Whitehaven; there are no fixed bus schedules. The village of Drigg is on the B5344 road between Holmrook and

, it links to the A595.

Church

The parish church is dedicated to

St Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

and was rebuilt in 1850.

Low Level Waste Repository

The site of the

Royal Ordnance Factory Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal ...

(ROF Drigg) between the railway line and the sea is now the site of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority low-level radioactive waste repository. This was opened in 1959 by the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

, covers about , and holds about one million cubic metres of

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

, although historic disposal records are incomplete. Much of the waste came from the nearby

Sellafield Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...

nuclear complex.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Drigg
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
Drigg Reserve LNR citation
{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority) Radioactive waste repositories de:Drigg