Carlisle, Cumbria in the context of "Anglo-Scottish border"

The University of Cumbria is a public university in Cumbria, with its headquarters in Carlisle and other major campuses in Lancaster, Ambleside, and London. It has roots extending back to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, established in 1822, and the teacher training college established by Charlotte Mason in the 1890s. It opened its doors in 2007 as a university.

The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over 230 miles (370 km) from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby before heading north-west. It passes Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle and runs between Manchester and Liverpool before terminating at Junction 45 near Gretna. Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are between junctions 4 and 10a in the West Midlands, and junctions 16 to 19 in Cheshire; these sections have now been converted to smart motorways.

It incorporated the Preston By-pass, the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north–south between London and Glasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east–west route between the Midlands and the east-coast ports. The section from the M1 to the M6 Toll split near Birmingham forms part of the unsigned E-road E 24 and the section from the M6 Toll and the M42 forms part of E 05.

Barrow-in-Furness, commonly known as Barrow, is an industrial port town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, Barrow is at the tip of the Furness peninsula, 24 miles (39 km) south-west of Kendal and 18 miles (29 km) west of Lancaster. It is bordered by Morecambe Bay to the east, the Duddon Estuary to the west, and the Irish Sea to the south. In 2021, Barrow's population was 55,489, making it the second largest urban area in Cumbria after Carlisle and the largest in Westmorland and Furness.

In the Middle Ages, Barrow was a small hamlet, with its economy controlled by Furness Abbey. In the 19th century, iron prospector Henry Schneider among other investors opened the Furness Railway to transport iron ore and slate from local mines to the coast, which led to the construction of docks, now the Royal Port of Barrow. The discovery of hematite deposits allowed the steel industry to develop in the town, and for a period, its steelworks were the largest in the world. It was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867, and the town’s steel production and coastal location enabled it to develop as a centre for shipbuilding. The steel industry declined after World War II.

Bowness-on-Solway is a village in Cumbria, England, and in the historic county of Cumberland. It is situated to the west of Carlisle on the southern side of the Solway Firth estuary separating England and Scotland. The civil parish had a population of 1,126 at the 2011 census. The western end of Hadrian's Wall is a notable tourist destination, though the Wall itself is no longer to be seen here above ground. The west end of the Hadrian's Wall Path is marked by a pavilion on the small coastal cliff at Bowness. The village is part of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle is a Middle English tail-rhyme romance of 660 lines, composed in about 1400.A similar story is told in a 17th-century minstrel piece found in the Percy Folio and known as The Carle of Carlisle. These are two of a number of early English poems that feature the Arthurian hero Sir Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, in his English role as a knight of the Round Table renowned for his valour and, particularly, for his courtesy.

This is taken to comic lengths when, during a hunting expedition, Sir Gawain arrives with his hunting companions Sir Kay and Bishop Baldwin, at a castle owned by the Carle of Carlisle. A carle – a variant of the Old Norse word for "free man", from which also the first name Carl is derived – was a rough, uncouth man in medieval England and to have him as the lord of a castle helps to create a sense of an entry into an Otherworld, as does the way Sir Gawain and his companions arrive. They have been pursuing a deer all afternoon, like the Irish mythological hero Fionn mac Cumhail, in a forest outside Cardiff, but arrive in the evening in the haunted Inglewood Forest, near Carlisle, in the north of England, a distance of about three hundred miles.

The Solway Plain or Solway Basin is a coastal plain located mostly in northwest Cumbria in England, extending just over the Scottish border to the low-lying area around Gretna and Annan. It lies generally north and west of Carlisle along the Solway Firth, and is drained by the rivers Esk and Lyne. It is associated with the westernmost part of Hadrian's Wall. In medieval times, clay houses known as dabbins were commonly built on the Solway Plain. The Solway coast has been designated an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”.

The plain is known for its archaeological heritage. Archaeological finds that are mentioned in Hodgson and Brennand include urned cremation cemeteries at Ewanrigg, evidence suggesting an ancient domestic settlement at Plasketlands, and evidence suggesting pre-Roman occupation at Ewanrigg, Wolsty Hall and Boustead Hill (among other sites). Salta Moss, where a Bronze Age rapier was discovered, boasts flora that is unusual for a mire on the Solway Plain, and has been designated a “Site of Special Scientific Interest” since 1982. As the presence of Hadrian's Wall attests, the Solway Plain is also known for its history as a disputed borderland, control of which was often fought over — from the Roman occupation of Britain to the Border Reivers and Anglo-Scottish conflicts in the Middle Ages.

Luguvalium (or Luguvalium Carvetiorum) was an ancient Roman city in northern Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century province of Valentia. It was the northernmost city of the Roman Empire.

Carlisle is the second smallest of England's ancient cathedrals. Its notable features include figurative stone carving, a set of medieval choir stalls and the largest window in the Flowing Decorated Gothic style in England.