Wolsty
| Wolsty | |
|---|---|
 Wolsty Hall, one of the farms in the hamlet |
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 Wolsty
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| Wolsty shown within Cumbria | |
| OS grid reference | NY104509 |
| Civil parish | |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WIGTON |
| Postcode district | CA7 |
| Dialling code | 016973 |
| Police | Cumbria |
| Fire | Cumbria |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Wolsty is a small hamlet in the civil parish of Holme Low in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is located three-and-a-quarter miles south of Silloth-on-Solway, five miles west of Abbeytown, three-and-a-quarter miles north of the village of Mawbray, and twenty-three miles west of Cumbria's county town, Carlisle. The B5300 coast road, which heads north toward Silloth-on-Solway and south to Mawbray, Allonby, and Maryport, is three-quarters of a mile away by road, or less than a quarter of a mile by way of an unpaved farm track.
The name "Wolsty" is derived from the Old English wulf-stīg, meaning a "wolf-frequented path". There have been several recorded variant spellings, including Woulstie, Worsty, Wristie, Wolmsty, and Ulsty.
The area around Wolsty was fortified during the Roman period, when a series of milefortlets were constructed beyond the western end of Hadrian's Wall to guard against incursions across the Solway Firth. Milefortlets 13 and 14 are located in the vicinity of the hamlet.
During the 14th century, coastal raids by Scots were still commonplace, plaguing settlements like Wolsty. To defend the vulnerable Holme Abbey at nearby Abbeytown, a castle was constructed at Wolsty to defend the coast. After falling into disrepair by the 1570s, attempts to repair the castle were undertaken in the 1630s, but with the kingdoms of England and Scotland edging closer toward friendship, the castle was no longer needed and had been demolished by the year 1700. The castle would have proven formidable to raiding parties; remaining archaeological evidence has shown that there was a moat, and that the walls were over two metres thick. The castle is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as a site of "national importance". An archaeological dig was carried out on the site in July 2013.
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Wikipedia