Experience the best of Carlisle

Carlisle stands in the far north-west of England, about fifteen kilometres from the Scottish border, where the Eden meets the Caldew and Petteril. The Romans founded a fort here, Luguvalium, on the line of Hadrian's Wall, which ends at the Solway coast to the west. Carlisle Castle, begun in the 1090s, held Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 and saw fighting in the Jacobite rising of 1745. The red sandstone fortress is now a museum of border history.

The cathedral, among the smallest of England's medieval cathedrals, has a blue ceiling painted with gold stars and a huge east window. Tullie House Museum, next to the castle, covers Roman and border history. The Settle–Carlisle railway, crossing the Pennines over the Ribblehead Viaduct, ends here, and Birdoswald fort on Hadrian's Wall lies to the east. The Lake District is to the south-west.

Cumberland sausage and the Cumberland rum nicky, a tart of dates, ginger and rum, are the local dishes, and border pubs serve them with ale. The Eden valley is rolling farmland, and the weather is mild and often wet.