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Wolsty is a small hamlet in the civil parish of Holme Low in Cumbria, England. 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 area around Wolsty was fortified during the Roman Britain, when Milefortlet 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.
Wolsty also appears to have taken part in the "seawake", a night watch along the coast. Residents of coastal communities took turns standing watch along the coast to guard against raids. In the 1570s, farmers at Wolsty would have had to trek to Dubmill, a little over four miles away past Hailforth and Salta, to grind their grain at the Water mill there. The hamlet became part of the new parish of Holme Low (previously known as Holme St. Pauls or Low Holme), when it was separated from the parish of Holme Abbey in 1845. This was done following the construction of St. Paul's church at nearby Causewayhead.
Wolsty is in the civil parish of Holme Low, and the Cumberland unitary authority area. It is located less than half-a-mile from the boundary with the civil parish of Holme St. Cuthbert. The hamlet's parliamentary constituency is Penrith and Solway.
Wolsty is just outside the southern stretch of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Wolsty Banks, the area of sand dunes between the hamlet and the sea on the far side of the B5300 coast road, was a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1991, along with nearby Mawbray Banks. The Banks were damaged by a fire in 2013, and could take several years to recover.
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