Hadrian's Wall gets the fame, but the Roman frontier did not simply stop at Bowness-on-Solway. Beyond the end of the wall, a chain of milefortlets and towers continued down the Cumbrian coast, watching the Solway Firth for raiders from the north. Wolsty South, tower 13b, was one of them, a small stone watchtower near Silloth on the low, windy coast. There is little to see today, often just a mark in the ground, but the site is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed by UNESCO, and its position tells a story: from here, Roman soldiers looked across the water to the hills of Scotland.
Silloth is a small Victorian port and seaside resort, built in the nineteenth century as a harbour for Carlisle, with wide cobbled streets, a big green along the seafront and a sense of having been left behind by the railway age. The sunsets over the Solway are famous, with the mountain of Criffel across the water turning purple. Inland, at Abbeytown, the remains of the Cistercian abbey of Holme Cultram recall the monks who once owned much of this land.
The coast here is low and wild, with dunes, salt marshes and shingle beaches, and it is a nature reserve for birds, from waders to wintering geese. The riding is easy and atmospheric: the B5300 runs along the coast from Maryport to Silloth, with views over the firth and very little traffic outside summer weekends. The wind can be ferocious, and rain blows in quickly, but on a clear day the light over the water is magical. Inland, the lanes toward Wigton and the Lake District begin to climb, with the fells rising on the horizon.
Silloth has shops and cafés; for fuel and a wider choice, Maryport, fifteen kilometres down the coast, and Wigton inland are good options. Cumbrian food is hearty: Cumberland sausage, coiled in a long spiral, sticky toffee pudding and local ales. A fish and chip supper on Silloth's seafront, watching the sun set over Scotland, is about as good as it gets. If you go looking for the tower, park carefully and walk the coast path; the sense of standing on the edge of an empire is strong here.