…and your essential guide to the city. Check out what’s on with up-to-the-minute event listings and information. Get the low-down on the best places to eat, drink, shop and go out. And take advantage of great ticket deals and special offers to really make the most of your Carlisle break.
Where is it? Standing close to the Scottish/English border, on the line of Hadrian's Wall, Carlisle is 100 miles south of Glasgow and 300 miles north-west of London
Style A unique mixture of urban and rural: a cosmopolitan, compact city surrounded by miles of breathtaking countryside
Smell Biscuits from Carrs of Carlisle, fresh breezes from the Solway
Seek Out Carlisle's history, from Celtic warlords, Roman legions and Border reivers to textile manufacturing during the Industrial Revolution
When to go February, March and October are ideal, when fewer people are about. Spring sees hosts of daffodils in front of the Cathedral and summer, with its busy event programme, is always very popular
Celebrates Easter Continental Market (Mar/Apr), Festival of Nations, International Music Festival, Cumberland Show (all Jul), pop2thepark, the Great Food Fair (Aug), Great Cumbrian Run (Oct), Carlisle Fireshow (Nov), Carlisle - the Christmas City (Dec)
Did you Know? Some 700 years ago the Border region was a lawless place, and the border reivers - like cowboy bandits in the wild west - stole cattle back and forth over the border. The Bishop of Glasgow issued a curse, commemorated on a controversial millennium sculpture, the Cursing Stone, housed in the Millennium Gallery between Carlisle Castle and Tullie House. Carlisle is also the only city outside London to have held the English Parliament
Top Tip For the most dramatic journey into Carlisle, take the stunning Settle-Carlisle Railway over the Ribblehead Viaduct and through the Eden Valley (check locally for steam specials)
© 2006 Whatsonwhen Ltd.
