Carlisle is the only city and county town of Cumbria County in north-west England. It was originally a Roman settlement built to serve the forts on Hadrian's Wall. Landmarks include the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery and the Sands Centre Sports Hall, an entertainment venue.

Cumbria is a county in north-west England and came into existence after 1974. Apart from the city of Carlisle, the only city in the county and its county town, the only other major urban area is Barrow-in-Furness.

Cumbria consists of six districts; Allerdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland. It is comparatively sparsely populated. It contains the Lake District National Park, an outstanding area of natural beauty and much of the terrain is mountainous. It includes the tallest peak in England - Scafell Pike.

Historic sites include Carlisle Castle, Furness Abbey and Hadrian's Wall. Adjacent counties include Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland and there are two Scottish council areas - Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north.

The University of Cumbria is based in Carlisle and the city is the transport hub of the county: its rail station offers direct services to London and other major conurbations. The M6 is the only motorway in the county and terminates just over the border, in Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway County), at Gretna junction.

Gretna Green is famous for 'runaway marriages' - English couples who are over 16 but under 18 are still known to go there to get married when they can't get parental consent (they can do so under Scottish law).

The sport of pole vaulting was invented in Cumbria in 1879 - it developed as a technique to cross waterways - and Botchergate in Carlisle is where the first mainland pillar (post) box was sited in mainland Britain, in 1853.