Carlisle

Carlisle is Cumbria's only city and its capital in all but name, a border town that has been fought over by Romans, Scots and English for nearly two thousand years. It lies where the Rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril meet, just south of the Scottish border, and its centre is compact enough to walk in an afternoon.

The castle, run by English Heritage, has a long record of sieges and was where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held in 1568. A short walk away, the red sandstone cathedral has a magnificent painted ceiling and a great east window. Tullie House museum, between the two, is the best place in Cumbria to understand Hadrian's Wall and the Border Reivers, and its gardens are a pleasant place to sit.

The streets around the Market Cross and the Old Town Hall have the shops, while the Victorian Market Hall trades Monday to Saturday and an open air market runs on Fridays. Bitts Park and Rickerby Park run along the River Eden, and the Hadrian's Wall Path follows the riverbank through the city. Carlisle is also the northern end of the Settle to Carlisle railway, one of the great train journeys in Britain.

Carlisle is not a Lakes town: Keswick is 45 minutes away and the city's outskirts are ordinary. The ring road is busy at rush hour. But it has excellent rail links, plenty of hotels, and enough history to fill two days, and it makes a fine stop on the way to or from Scotland.