Tarns is a small farming settlement in 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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Holme St. Cuthbert Holme St Cuthbert (occasionally Holme St Cuthberts; pronounced and occasionally written Holme Saint Cuthbert) is a small village and civil parish in the borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria, United Kingdom. The village is located approx ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, United Kingdom. It is located two miles north-east of the village of

Mawbray Mawbray is a village in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically part of Cumberland. It is located on the Solway Plain, south west of Silloth, north of Maryport, and west of Carlisle. ...

, and twenty-three miles south-west of Carlisle, Cumbria's county town. The B5301 road runs through the settlement, and along that road the town of

Silloth-on-Solway Silloth (sometimes known as Silloth-on-Solway) is a port town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Cumberland, the town is an example of a Victorian era, Vict ...

is located five-and-a-half miles to the north, and Aspatria four-and-a-half miles to the south-east. Other nearby settlements include Aikshaw,

Goodyhills Goodyhills is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert, in northern Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is located 1.5 miles east of the village of Mawbray, and 23 miles west of the city of Carlisle. A quarter of a mile to the north-west is ...

, Jericho, and New Cowper.

History and etymology

The name Tarns comes from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

"tiorn", meaning a lake, and "tarn" is a word commonly used in

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

for a lake or pond. Such a lake is present at Tarns, giving the settlement its name. In the past, the name has been spelled as Ternis, Terns, and Tarnes. Tarns is a small settlement, and, in spite of appearing on local signposts, including on the B5300 coast road, it is not named on some contemporary mapping projects like Google Maps. However, it does appear in the historical record, with records of births and deaths dating from at least the early 19th century. It is also noted on historical documents from the time of Holme Cultram Abbey's operation prior to the dissolution of the monasteries, where a farm owned by the abbey was operating at Tarns in or around 1200 AD. The tarn for which the settlement is named has a surface area of 21 acres (8.5 hectares), and a perimeter of three-quarters of a mile (1.1 km).

Local amenities

Tarns has no public transportation links, though a shuttle-bus is laid on to and from

Aspatria railway station Aspatria railway station is a railway station serving the town of Aspatria in Cumbria, England. It is on the Cumbrian Coast Line, which runs between and . It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. History The station was ope ...

(the nearest station to the settlement) for visitors to Solfest during the August bank holiday weekend. The nearest stops on a mainline bus service are two-and-a-half miles away at either

Beckfoot Beckfoot is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5300 coast road, three miles south of Silloth-on-Solway and two miles north of the village of Mawbray. The county town of Carlisle is ...

on the B5300 road, where services run every two hours in the direction of

Silloth Silloth (sometimes known as Silloth-on-Solway) is a port town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically in the county of Cumberland, the town is an example of a Victorian seaside resort in the North of Engl ...

and

Maryport Maryport is a town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England, historically in Cumberland. The town is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, at the northern end of the former Cumberland Coalfield. Location ...

, or alternatively four miles away at

Abbeytown Abbeytown, also known as Holme Abbey, is a village and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The name Abbeytown dates to the mid-17th century (''The Towne of the Abbey'', ''Abbey Towne''; ''Abbeytown'' from mid-18th centur ...

, where buses run from Silloth to Carlisle via

Wigton Wigton is a market town in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just outside the Lake District in the borough of Allerdale. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells an ...

. Both nearby pubs, the Lowther Arms at Mawbray and the Swan Inn at Westnewton closed in the 2010s and the nearest restaurants and pubs are in Aspatria, Abbeytown, and Silloth. There is a tea room called The Gincase near Newtown and a garden centre at Bank Mill near Beckfoot which are both accessible by road from Tarns.

Solfest

Tarnside Farm, one of the farms at Tarns, played host to an annual music festival called

Solfest Solfest is a music and arts festival on the Solway Coast in the North West of England. It is held annually at North Lakes Country Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend. It has grown from a 1,800 capacity event in 2004 to a 10,000 capacity f ...

on the

August bank holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

weekend. A

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsSolway Plain The Solway Plain or Solway Basin is a coastal plain located mostly in northwest Cumbria in England, extending just over the Scottish border to the low-lying area around Gretna and Annan. It lies generally north and west of Carlisle along the Sol ...

) and "festival", Solfest started in 2003 and has attracted such artists as

Badly Drawn Boy Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show ''Sam and his Magic Ball'', which he saw ...

Seth Lakeman Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. Ac ...

The Proclaimers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, and

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

. The 2014 edition was cancelled, but the festival resumed in 2015. The 2020 edition of the festival had to be cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. In 2007, Solfest won an award for the "Best Family Festival". The full price for an adult ticket for Solfest 2012 was £95, with young people aged 12–16 paying £65, and children paying £35. Tickets for the final edition in 2019 were £105.19 for adults or £285.81 for a family of two adults and two children. Youth tickets, child tickets, as well day tickets were also available.

References

{{reflist Hamlets in Cumbria Holme St Cuthbert