On reaching the end of the Settle – Carlisle railway line at Carlisle, the sun came out providing lovely views of the station.
I suspect the roof is not the original based on the existence of a supporting wall without a roof span one platform further.
The station is close to the gate to the city and once past the gate, there is a market square with lots of tea-drinking venues. Past the square, you can reach the castle and a few parks nearby.
Carlisle is one of the places along Hadrian’s Wall at which there were fortresses and a customs point. The wall itself stretched from the west to the east coast across England. It formed the border between the Roman Empire and Caledonia, never conquered by the Romans. There is a footpath which broadly follows the wall, the Hadrian’s Wall Path which runs for 84 miles.
At Carlisle, the path is routed into the city and runs along the edge of Bitts park, which we had found when exploring from the castle. We walked along that section of Hadrian’s Wall Path, but never saw any of the actual remains of the wall.
These mosaic chairs were installed in 2011 as part of the creation of a walking path between Bitts Park and a newly built skate park. They appear pretty popular to photograph, we had to wait our turn to take our pictures!
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