On the eastern edge of Carlisle, where the M6 motorway sweeps north towards Scotland, the line of Hadrian's Wall crosses the fields and housing estates in a way that is barely visible. Yet the vallum, the great ditch the Romans dug south of the Wall, can still be traced here as a slight dip in the ground, and this stretch between the motorway and the outskirts of the city is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site. It takes some imagination, but standing here you are on the line that marked the edge of the empire for nearly three hundred years.
Carlisle, just west, has been a border city for two thousand years. The Romans built a fort here, Luguvalium, which became an important town and supply base for the Wall. In the Middle Ages, the city changed hands several times between England and Scotland, and its castle, a massive red sandstone fortress, was besieged many times, most famously in the Jacobite rising of 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie's army captured it before retreating. Mary, Queen of Scots, was held prisoner there in 1568. The cathedral, one of the smallest in England, has a beautiful painted ceiling.
The Border Reivers, raiding families who terrorised the borderlands from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, are a big part of local history. The Tullie House Museum in Carlisle tells their story, along with that of the Romans and the city itself. Names like Armstrong, Elliot and Graham are still common in the area, descendants of the reiving families.
The riding here is a mix of city and country. The roads into and out of Carlisle are busy, but heading east along the A69 or the Military Road takes you into the wild landscapes of the central Wall. South, the Eden valley offers quiet, scenic roads through red sandstone villages and farmland, with the Pennines rising to the east. North, the Scottish border is just a few miles away, with the rolling hills of Dumfries and Galloway beyond.
Carlisle, about three kilometres away, has fuel, shops, restaurants and hotels. Scotby, a small village nearby, has basic services. In Carlisle, look for a pub serving Cumberland sausage, a long, coiled pork sausage that is a local speciality, with mash and onion gravy, or stop by a bakery for a Cumbrian rum butter tart.