Silloth

Silloth is a planned Victorian town on the Solway Firth, built when the railway from Carlisle arrived in the 1850s to create a port and a resort. Its streets are laid out on a grid of wide, cobbled roads, and between the town and the sea runs Silloth Green, a long stretch of grass with a promenade and dunes beyond. The planned layout gives the town an unusually spacious feel, and many of the Victorian terraces facing the green survive.

The town's great asset is the view. Across the firth, the hills of Dumfries and Galloway are dominated by Criffel, and the sunsets over the water are among the best in the north of England. Silloth on Solway Golf Club's links course, laid out in the dunes, is highly regarded.

The Solway Coast National Landscape stretches around the town, with salt marsh, dunes and shingle beaches south towards Beckfoot and Allonby. The Solway Coast Discovery Centre in the town explains the landscape and wildlife, and in winter the marshes host big flocks of geese. Autumn and winter are best for birdwatching, when tens of thousands of geese arrive on the Solway marshes, while summer brings long, light evenings on the green.

Silloth is quiet, especially in winter, and the wind off the firth can be bitter. Facilities are modest. It is a place for a gentle walk, fish and chips and the sunset, and a Thursday market runs from Easter to October.