CAMP FARM, MARYPORT, CUMBRIA

On clifftops overlooking the Solway and Irish Sea, the Roman frontier began with the fort of Alauna and ran to the Black Sea. Now part of the World Heritage Site better known in the UK for Hadrian’s Wall, Cultura’s Camp Farm includes the Roman site, a Victorian Model Farm and part of the Solway Coast AONB; this stunning cultural landscape has stories to tell and a special role. 2022 marked the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall with a year-long festival. We have recruited a local animateur with funding from Cumbria Community Foundation to manage engagement and access projects linking in with Maryport Heritage Action Zone and the Senhouse Roman Museum. Camp Farm has the potential to make a real contribution to climate action, including through renewable energy and biodiversity. As part of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund project, we have established a wildflower meadow to create a habitat for pollinators including the endangered small blue butterfly. In addition, working with Cumbria Community Forest we have established new woodland areas on the farm, helped by volunteers and local schools and the new willow coppice will be a resource for creative activities in years to come. Raise Cumbria have used the woodland planting as a case study.

Cultura has a Learning Plan, SDG Plan, Biodiversity Plan and Renewable Energy Plan all ready and awaiting the opportunity to transform this previously commercially farmed land into a twenty-first century model farm, delivering learning programmes and farming practices consistent with the SDGs. It will take many years to redevelop the whole site, but this journey of restoration – of both buildings and landscape involving the community – is an integral part of the project.