Not every Roman monument is made of stone. North of Carlisle, on low ground close to the Solway plain, the traces of a Roman temporary camp show up mainly as marks in the ground and in crops: a square or rectangle of ditch and bank, with rounded corners, where an army spent a night or two under leather tents. Nowtler Hill was one of those places. Marching armies built such camps every evening, digging the ditch and piling the earth into a rampart topped with stakes, so that even a short halt was protected.
Camps like this in the far north of England are often linked to the campaigns of the emperor Septimius Severus, who came to Britain in AD 208 with a huge force to subdue the tribes of Scotland and based himself at York. Carlisle, called Luguvalium by the Romans, was a vital supply base for these operations, and the temporary camps along the roads north show where columns of soldiers and baggage trains stopped on the way. Severus died at York in 211 before the campaign could be completed, and the Romans afterwards withdrew to the line of Hadrian's Wall for good.
Carlisle is well worth some of your time. The Tullie House museum tells the story of the border country from the Romans onward, the red sandstone castle was a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots, and the cathedral, one of the smallest in England, has a magnificent painted ceiling of gold stars on blue. The town sat on a troubled frontier for centuries, and border families called reivers raided back and forth until the seventeenth century.
Riding around Carlisle is easy and pleasant. The roads north and west run across flat farmland toward the Solway, with long views to the Scottish hills, and the surfaces are generally good, if bumpy on small lanes. Wind and rain come from the Irish Sea, and summer is mild rather than hot, with good light in the long evenings. Look out for farm vehicles and cyclists. The best months are May to September, and autumn colour along the River Eden is lovely.
Carlisle, four kilometres away, has fuel stations and supermarkets, along with pubs, cafés and plenty of hotels. A Cumberland sausage, coiled on the plate with mash, is the local dish, and a slice of Cumberland rum nicky, a tart of dates and rum, finishes it nicely.