Brampton

Brampton is a small market town of red sandstone, nine miles east of Carlisle, in the low country between the Solway plain and the North Pennines. Its centre is the Market Place, dominated by the octagonal Moot Hall, built in the early nineteenth century, and it has a handful of independent shops, pubs and cafes. The town was granted its market charter in the thirteenth century, and the Moot Hall still stands where the market was held.

The town's best asset is its position. A few miles north east, Lanercost Priory, founded in the twelfth century, stands in ruins beside a still working church. A little further, Hadrian's Wall emerges as standing masonry at Banks and Birdoswald Roman Fort, above the Irthing gorge. Naworth Castle, the seat of the Earls of Carlisle, is just east.

South of town, Talkin Tarn Country Park has a lake with a path all the way round and boating in season, and the Pennine foothills rise behind. Brampton's church, St Martin's, was designed by Philip Webb and has stained glass by Morris and Co., designed by Edward Burne-Jones, and is a small treasure for anyone interested in the Arts and Crafts movement. Spring and summer are the best seasons for the Wall, when the long days allow linear walks between the forts using the buses.

The railway station is a mile out of town at Milton, and the A69 bypass takes through traffic away. It is a quiet, practical base for walking the Wall, with Carlisle close for anything else.