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England > Cumbria & Lake District > Eden Valley, North Pennines, Carlisle, Hadrians Wall & Borderlands

Head east from the Lake District along the A66 (part of which was once a Roman road) and you enter the Eden Valley (also known, more picturesquely, as the Vale of Eden) that stretches from the North Pennines mountain range to the sandstone villages and rolling fields of the river valley. The Eden River runs through it, hence the name. Loved by anglers and surrounded by high fells, the wooded river valley is dotted with picturesque villages. Through the middle of it runs the 73-mile Settle to Carlisle stretch of railway, known as "the Long Drag" and carved out of the rock by sweating gangs of Irish labourers between 1869 and 1875. The Irish lived in shantytowns alongside the track, demolishing them as they moved. The Long Drag is Britain's highest railway and the most expensive track ever installed in the country. Many of the stations have closed, but they can't take away the breathtaking views.

Click on the headings to find out more: Appleby-in-Westmorland is an enchanting little grey stone village that has somehow managed to stay off the main tourist beat. A loop of the River Eden protects three sides of the village while Appleby Castle defends the fourth. The castle was restored in 1653 by a noted opponent of Oliver Cromwell and a major figure in the town's history, Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery. The last of the Cliffords (a powerful family which dominated the area for centuries), Lady Anne is buried in St Lawrence Church, along with her mother.
Britain's major annual Gypsy festival and horse trading fair takes place annually at nearby Gallows Hill (once used for another purpose) on the second Wednesday in June. Fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, itinerant horse dealers, used caravan salesmen, New Age travellers, circus hands and sightseers flood into town. You just might meet someone you haven't seen for years. If not, you can always get your fortune told!


Brough, built on the site of the Roman fort of Verterae, stands next to 11th century Brough Castle, once home of the sinister and half-crazed 13th Baron Clifford, known as 'The Butcher' for his cruelty during the Wars of the Roses. The Butcher's Castle was restored in the 17th century by the indomitable Lady Anne Clifford, but fell into ruins again. A slab there lists Lady Anne's full title: "Countess Dowager of Pembrook, Dorsett and Montgomery, Baronesse Clifford, Westermerland and Veseie, Lady of the Honour of Skipton in Craven and High Shiffesse, by inheritance, of the Countie of Westerland." They didn't carry business cards in those days - and you can see why.


Long Meg and her Daughters are not local Gypsies but a prehistoric stone circle. Then again, maybe they are local Gypsies after all - a persistent legend holds that the stones were once a coven of witches, turned to stone by a magician even more evil than they were. (Serves 'em right!) Less imaginative types reckon the site was a Bronze Age place of worship. Whatever it was, it's pretty eerie by daylight and downright weird by moonlight. Samuel Taylor Coleridge saw a few visions there, but after a few swigs or tincture of opium, that's hardly surprising. Long Meg, 18-feet high, is the tallest stone, standing outside her daughters, a ring of stones about 400 feet in diameter. The circle stands just outside Little Salkeld off the A686.


Kirkby Thore is set at the former meeting place of two Roman roads and was the site of the Roman fort of Bravoniacum. Stones from this fort were used to build medieval St Michael's Church in the village. Lowther Castle, seven miles west, looks imposing but is in fact a roofless shell. Mary Queen of Scots used to stay there.
Ravenstonedale, set in the woods near the source of the River Lune, was the birthplace of Elizabeth Gaunt, last woman in England to be executed for a political offence. In 1685 Elizabeth was burned at the stake at Tyburn, where Marble Arch now stands in London, for sheltering a fugitive follower of the rebel Duke of Monmouth. Monmouth, a bastard son of King Charles II, led a rebellion but was captured by the forces of King James II at the Battle of Sedgemoor and beheaded with an axe in traditional fashion. Mercy wasn't valued much in old England.
Cumbria's capital, Carlisle, stands in a region of ruggedness and solitude, not far from where Roman auxiliaries used to patrol Hadrian's Wall. "Turbulent" is the word most commonly used to describe Carlisle's history. The Romans called the town Luguvalium and rounded up any stray Picts and Scots who infiltrated from the barbarous lands to the north. When the Romans moved out, Saxons from the Germanic lands moved in, only to be attacked repeatedly by Viking marauders from Denmark, who took the city and sacked it in 875. The Saxons and the Danes spent the Dark Ages fighting each other with double-edged battleaxes when suddenly the Normans moved up from the south and seized control.
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