Carlisle

Discover Carlisle

Carlisle is a city in Cumbria, in northwest England 10 miles from the border with Scotland, with a population of 74,200 in 2024. Most visitors are just making an overnight stop on a long motorway journey, but reasons to linger include the cathedral, castle and museums. You could also use Carlisle as a base for exploring the northern end of the Lake District, and Hadrian's Wall. Caer Liwelyδ means the fortress of Luel or Luguwalion. It was a Roman garrison town from about 72 AD, and when they left after 300 years it was contested between petty kingdoms such as Strathclyde, Northumbria and Rheged. The Scots were holding it when the Normans arrived, but in 1092 William Rufus captured it for England and built the castle and city walls, which resisted re-capture by Scotland except for a brief Jacobite occupation in 1745. Between the organised military campaigns was continual banditry by the infamous Border Reivers. This era faded in the 18th century and was romanticised by Sir Walter Scott in the 19th. Carlisle then became a middling sort of market town, with textile mills and the arrival of the railway. It now has agricultural and food related businesses supplied by the surrounding lowlands.