Roman Cumbria to Wallsend on the Tyne estuary, with additional military installations running down the Cumbrian coast from Bowness to Risehow, south of Maryport, in an integrated fashion (and with forts at Burrow Walls and Moresby that were perhaps not part of the system). Historians believe that the Turf Wall from the River Irthing to Bowness-on Solway was rebuilt in stone in two stages. The most easterly five miles were rebuilt at the time of Hadrian, with the remainder being rebuilt after 150 AD. However, this is open to dispute: it is uncertain whether the building works in the second half of
Solway Junction Railway only the shore embankments remain. In the late 1850s, business interests were concerned to improve transport facilities for iron ore being mined in the area of Canonbie, in south Dumfriesshire close to the English border. Their intention was to bring the mineral to Annan Harbour (on the north shore of the Solway Firth), from where it could be forwarded by coastal shipping. They approached James Brunlees, a civil engineer with experience of coastal works. He advised against the scheme, which would have partly duplicated the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) route, but he put them in touch with business