Maryport, a seaport of Cumberland, at the mouth of the Ellen, 28 miles SW. of Carlisle by railway (1837). The town gets its name from the fact that Mary Queen of Scots landed here in her flight from Scotland, though it was called Ellenfoot down to 1750, when its harbour was constructed. A new dock was opened in 1884. Ship-building and its kindred employments are carried on, and there are iron-foundries and iron-furnaces, sawmills, flour-mills, tanneries, breweries, &c.
The annual value of the total exports, chiefly coal and iron, varies from £70,000 to £550,000; the imports of foreign and colonial merchandise range from £70,000 to £150,000. The average number of vessels entering the harbour is about 1550 per annum, of some 220,000 tons burden. Pop. (1851) 5698; (1891) 8784.