Maryport is a harbour town on the Cumbrian coast, a place of Georgian terraces, fishing boats and a long quay, with the Solway Firth and the hills of Galloway across the water. The town was laid out in the 1750s by Humphrey Senhouse, who named it for his wife Mary, and it grew on coal, shipbuilding and trade. Thomas Ismay, the founder of the White Star Line that later built the Titanic, was born here in 1837, and Fletcher Christian of the Bounty came from nearby Cockermouth. The harbour has been restored, with a maritime museum, a row of old boats, and a pleasant waterfront to walk.
The Romans got there first. On the cliff above the town stood the fort of Alauna, one of the chain of forts that continued the frontier down the Cumbrian coast. The Senhouse Roman Museum, set in a former naval battery, holds one of the best collections of Roman altars in Britain, assembled by the Senhouse family from the eighteenth century onwards. The altars were found buried in a pit near the fort, put there by commanders who dedicated one to Jupiter each year, and the collection shows the faith of the garrison. The museum's terrace has a fine view across the water.
The beach and the cliffs are windswept, and in winter storms the sea comes over the harbour wall. The air smells of salt and diesel, and the light at the end of the day, with the sun going down behind Scotland, is wonderful. Seabirds follow the fishing boats, and in the autumn thousands of geese arrive on the Solway.
For a rider, the Cumbrian coast road is a pleasant, relaxed route, running past old mining villages and views of the sea. The surface is mostly good, and traffic is light outside the summer. Maryport has fuel, supermarkets and cafés, and Dearham and Flimby are smaller villages. A plate of fish and chips on the quay is the right lunch. The best season is spring to early autumn.