High Street

High Street is the name of the Roman road that crossed the high fells of the Lake District between the forts at Galava at Ambleside and Brocavum at Brougham. It climbed straight up onto the long ridge that gives the road and the mountain their shared name, holding to ground above seven hundred metres for most of its length before descending into the Eden valley. It was the highest Roman road in Britain and may have been the most exposed. Today the line is a popular high-level walking route, with cairns and the broken-up agger still visible across the bare summits. Walkers come for the views; the Romans came because no easier line existed.