Silloth sits on a flat spit of land on the Solway Firth, and from the shore you look across the water to the hills of Dumfriesshire, blue in clear weather and smudged away in rain. This was once a Roman frontier too. The line of Hadrian's Wall did not stop at the western end of the stone wall but continued down the Cumbrian coast as a chain of milefortlets and towers, small posts built to watch for raiders crossing by sea or by the tidal flats, and some of their sites lie on this shore. Blitterlees is a marsh and farm on the coast close to Silloth, and traces of those posts are found in the area, mostly as faint bumps and records rather than visible walls.
The landscape is saltmarsh, mudflat and low fields, with a big sky and an edge of wind. The Solway has one of the largest tides in Britain, and it comes in across the sands faster than a person can walk, so keep to the paths. The shore is a wintering ground for barnacle geese from Svalbard, which arrive in their thousands in autumn, and the marshes hold waders and flocks of lapwing. The smell is of seaweed and mud, and the light at sunset over the water is very fine.
Silloth itself is a Victorian resort that was built with the railway in the 1850s, and its wide green, set between the town and the sea, is still the heart of the place. Carr's flour mill, a large industrial presence, stands by the dock, and the town has a pleasant, slightly faded charm, with ice cream, fish and chips and a promenade. It is quiet for most of the year, and the Solway Coast is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Riding on the Solway plain is relaxed. The roads are straight and flat with sudden bends round farms, and the wind can be strong from the west. Traffic is light and the surface is generally fair. Silloth has fuel, a small supermarket and cafés, and Wigton, a few miles away, is larger. Late summer and autumn, with the geese and the golden light, make the best visit.