It’s a good thing grey seals can’t understand Latin, as they wouldn’t be best pleased about their title of Halichoerus grypus, or ‘hook-nosed sea pig’.

Though uncharitably named, the longer, sloping head of the grey seal provides a key way of distinguishing it from the smaller, rounder-faced common seal.

Both species of seal can be seen at South Walney Nature Reserve, but this site provides a particularly important home to the only grey seal colony in Cumbria. There’s only one way to get there, following a single track road to the end of the windswept Walney Island.

I arrived by bike from Barrow train station - the ride is a flat one, but be warned, there’s usually a stiff headwind on the way back!

The waymarked red trail around the edge of the reserve leads to Groyne Hide, a perfect spot for some seal-watching. The hide overlooks a narrow shingle spit, and at low tide, grey seals ‘haul out’ on the spit to rest, digest their food, or regulate their body temperature.

This can be quite a spectacle - in the 2022/23 season, a peak of 466 seals was recorded here, but numbers have reached over 500 in the past. The colony is very sensitive to disturbance, so there’s no access to the beach where they haul out so it's best to bring binoculars for a good view.

Looking south from Walney on a clear day across the expanse of Morecambe Bay, a keen eye might be able to pick out Blackpool Tower on the horizon.

Just like any other mammal, grey seals can’t breathe underwater, so to conserve oxygen while hunting their heart rate drops dramatically to as little as four beats per minute. Thanks to this adaptation, they can stay submerged for up to sixteen minutes at a time.

Their diet consists mainly of sand eels and cod, but they'll happily feed on whatever fish is available, as well as species that some of us might consider delicacies such as octopus and lobsters. There’s no place for picky eating as Britain’s largest native carnivore - an adult bull (male seal) can weigh in at up to 300kg, and a cow (female seal) at up to 200kg.

Pupping season is fast approaching at South Walney Nature Reserve – from early October. The cows need to hunt often, eating as much as they can to build up their energy reserves, which are stored as nutrient-rich blubber.

After giving birth, a mother seal will fast for around three weeks, sacrificing up to a third of her body weight to feed her pups and give them the best possible chance at life.

Built in the 1890s, when South Walney was primarily a site for industrial salt extraction, the tower is one of the tallest buildings in the United Kingdom at 158m. Yet it’s only half as high as the depth that grey seals have been known to dive to on occasion - a staggering 300m below the sea’s surface.

It may be a harsh environment for a seal pup, but it's also quite remarkable. A multitude of rare species take refuge in the sand dunes, shingle and saltmarsh.

In every direction, there are traces of history: ridges and furrows in the land from medieval farming methods, ruined military forts and gun emplacements, and concrete industrial remnants now half submerged in lagoons.

On my visit to South Walney, I spoke to a man who lives locally and had fished the Walney Channel for years. He’d sailed all over the world, but there was something about this place, he said, that brought him back - and it’s easy to see why.

If you've not visited South Walney Nature Reserve yet, then you can get a feel of it by checking out the seal cam before you go. You usually get a view of the seal colony at their only haul-out location in Cumbria. It also  occasionally focuses on a view of Piel castle and the reserve's bird life such as its nationally important gull colony.

Please remember, there's no access to the beach where the seals haul out at South Walney Nature Reserve, to prevent disturbance of the colony, and dogs are not allowed on the site, apart from assistance dogs.