Drumburgh is a few farms and a ruined-looking castle at the edge of the Solway marsh, and it is easy to miss, but it sits on the line of Hadrian's Wall where it slides down to the shore at Bowness. The castle was built from the stones of a Roman fort, called Congavata, and that gives a picture of how much of the frontier went into later buildings. The label places us on a stretch of Wall between Fulwood House and the next landmark, with Parton Roman fort on the far side of Cumbria, a reminder that Hadrian's frontier carried on around the coast.
The land here is flat and open, with big sky and a salty smell. The roads run straight and quiet, with a smooth surface and little traffic apart from farm vehicles. Gusts from the firth can be stiff, so brace for sideways shoves on exposed stretches. Not far away, the village of Port Carlisle is a sleepy place that was once a canal port, linked to Carlisle by a short-lived canal in the 1820s and later by a railway whose carriages were pulled by a horse, nicknamed the Dandy. The harbour is silted and the village is quiet, but the long, low houses along the shore have a certain faded charm.
Gretna, in Scotland, is about eight kilometres away and has just over three thousand people, so you can find fuel and food there, and Carlisle, nearly nine kilometres off, is the bigger option. Gretna Green is famous for its runaway weddings, which began in the eighteenth century because Scots law allowed couples to marry without parental consent, and the old blacksmith's shop is still open to visitors. A coffee in the village gives you a taste of the romantic legend.
Spend a minute on the marsh. Ahead, the Solway Firth stretches to the Scottish shore, with the hills of Galloway beyond. The tide moves quickly, and the mud is dangerous, so keep to the paths. Out on the flats, the sky is the only thing that seems to have any height.