Dubmill Point is where the Solway coast road comes closest to the sea, and on stormy days with a high tide, waves break right over the B5300 and the road can be closed. The point is a low spit of shingle and grass between Allonby and Silloth, and here the Romans built milefortlet 17, part of the coastal defences that extended the frontier of Hadrian's Wall down the Cumbrian shore. A small garrison watched the firth for boats crossing from the north, and signals passed from post to post along the coast. Little remains today, but the site is exposed and evocative, with the sea on one side and the flat fields of the coastal plain on the other.
Allonby, a little south, is a village of whitewashed cottages strung along the shore, with a wide beach and a reputation for horses: you will often see riders galloping on the sand. It was a fashionable bathing spot in the eighteenth century, and Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins stayed here in 1857 on a walking tour. A famous ice cream shop on the front draws people from miles around on summer days.
Further south, Maryport was a Roman fort and naval base called Alauna, and the Senhouse Roman Museum on the clifftop holds one of the finest collections of Roman altars in Britain, many dedicated to Jupiter, found buried near the fort. The town itself is a Georgian port with a harbour and a maritime museum.
The ride along the B5300 between Maryport and Silloth is easy, flat and open, with constant views across the Solway to the hills of Galloway and, inland, to the fells of the Lake District. The road surface is generally good, but sand and seaweed can be blown onto it, and crosswinds are frequent. It is a calm road for a sunny afternoon or a spectacular one in a gale, when spray flies across and the sea turns white. Check the tide times if the weather is rough.
For fuel and food, Maryport is the nearest town with full services, about ten kilometres south, and Silloth has shops and cafés to the north. A coffee in Allonby, watching the tide, is a fine pause on this exposed edge of England.