Maryport is a small harbour town on the Cumbrian coast, built in the eighteenth century by the Senhouse family, who named it after Mary, the wife of Humphrey Senhouse. Long before that it was a Roman fort called Alauna, part of the coastal defences that continued south along the shore from the end of Hadrian's Wall. The Senhouse Roman Museum, set in a former Victorian naval battery on the cliffs, has a remarkable collection of altars found nearby, many of them dedicated by the commanders of the cohorts stationed here.
Sea Brows is the high ground on this seaward edge, and from it you can see the Solway Firth and, on a clear day, the hills of Scotland and the shape of the Isle of Man. The harbour at the foot has fishing boats and yachts, and the town has a Georgian grid of streets laid out in a plan. Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line, whose ships included the Titanic, was born in Maryport. The mix of Roman, Georgian and industrial history is surprisingly dense for a town of this size.
On a bike the coast road is the pleasure, with the sea on one side and the fells on the other, and a landscape that turns from sunny to stormy in an hour. The surface is generally good, with gentle bends and long straights, though the sea wind can be very strong and salt mist makes the road greasy. Traffic builds in summer around Allonby and the holiday spots. Look out for a stretch of beach where the tide runs in rapidly.
Maryport has fuel, shops and cafes, and the harbour has a few places for fish and chips by the quay. Cockermouth, a short ride inland, is a good market town with Wordsworth's birthplace. Come on a bright evening when the sun sets over the Solway and the whole sky turns orange, and carry a windproof layer because the breeze is persistent.