The Solway Firth, west of Carlisle, is a wide, shallow estuary where the Cumbrian plain opens out to the sea, and the marshes and farmland on its southern shore are the western end of Hadrian's Wall, with the Scottish hills visible on the far side. The land is low, wet and windy, with cattle in the fields and tall skies full of birds, and a visitor will find little that looks like Roman engineering until they look closely at the ground.
Hadrian's Wall was begun in about AD 122, in the reign of the emperor whose name it bears, and it ran for eighty Roman miles from the Tyne to the Solway. Beside it, to the south, the Romans dug the Vallum, a huge flat-bottomed ditch with a bank on each side, a feature found nowhere else on the empire's frontiers. Nobody is quite sure of its purpose, but it probably marked the southern edge of the military zone and controlled movement to and from the wall. On this stretch the earthworks are faint, softened by farming and time, but in good light you can pick out the ditch as a long hollow crossing the fields. Do not expect stone, because much of the wall here was built of turf and later rebuilt, and the farmers of the area took the rest for their buildings.
Nearby, at Burgh by Sands, King Edward I died of dysentery in July 1307, on his way to fight the Scots, and a monument stands on the marsh where he is said to have fallen. The Solway has some of the fastest tides in Britain, which rush in across the sands, so keep away from the shore unless you know the times.
The roads here are quiet and flat, with long straights and sharp, sudden bends between hedges, and the B5307 follows the line of the Wall through the villages. Gravel and mud from farm vehicles can be a hazard. Wind is strong off the firth, and rain comes in from the west, so waterproofs are sensible even in summer. Light in the evening is wonderful, with the hills of Galloway glowing across the water.
Carlisle, eight kilometres away, has everything: fuel, food and a castle, a cathedral and a good museum of Roman life. Gretna and Denton Holme have shops too. The best time is late spring or early autumn, when the marsh is full of geese.