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Visit Kirkby Lonsdale and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:
Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, is easily missed from the East, being hidden behind the junction of the A65 and the A683. The Devil's Bridge over the River Lune, an Ancient Monument of obscure origin, is probably 13th-century and considered one of the finest ancient English bridges. Turn North from the main road to enter this charming old town of narrow streets and Georgian buildings.
A good centre for visiting the unspoilt Lune valley, the town is a market and social centre for the surrounding agricultural area which, like much of the north-west region, has relics of the long Roman occupation. There are some good, small shops, particularly the bookshop. Restaurants are few, but there are several residential hotels and guest-houses. The motorist can park in the little Market Square (with the still smaller Horsemarket beyond), or in car parks uphill from it, and walk North along the main street and then left, past old inns like the Sun, with its stone columns. At the church gates is the notice pointing to the place, the view from which Ruskin described as “one of the loveliest in England and therefore in the world”. A plaque on the wall at Church Brow, quotes “Fors Clavigera”, his monthly letter to “the workmen and labourers of Great Britain”, and marks the spot where Turner (whom Ruskin so strongly championed) painted a picture of the Lune.
St Mary's Church is Norman, built on an Anglo-Saxon site, and the earliest of the churches in the valley. It has been developed and added to rather haphazardly, the remaining parts of the Norman period being the three westernmost arches and piers of the nave's north arcade, and the south and west doorways. The mosaic reredos, iron screen, attractive stained glass, choir seats and encaustic floor tiles are all Victorian. The six-sided pulpit is 17th-century. There are various 18th-century mural tablets, and a font that came from the 14th-century Killington chapel.
Casterton, about l½ miles North, is on the route of a Roman road. The well-known Casterton Girls' School (the Clergy Daughters' School) was formerly at Cowan Bridge, where four Brontė sisters were pupils, and may be the original of “Lowood” in Jane Eyre.
Nearby towns: Carnforth, Ingleton, Kendal, Sedbergh, Settle
Nearby villages: Arkholme, Barbon, Borwick, Burton in Lonsdale, Casterton, Caton, Cowan Bridge, Crooklands, Dent, Farleton, Gatebeck, Gawthrop, Gressingham, Hale, Heversham, High Bentham, Holme, Hornby, Leck, Lower Bentham, Lupton, Melling, Middleton, Milnthorpe, Natland, Nether Kellet, Old Hutton, Over Kellet, Oxenholme, Sedgwick, Tunstall, Warton, Whittington, Wray
Have you decided to visit Kirkby Lonsdale or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:
- a Kirkby Lonsdale bed and breakfast (a Kirkby Lonsdale B&B or Kirkby Lonsdale b and b)
- a Kirkby Lonsdale guesthouse
- a Kirkby Lonsdale hotel (or motel)
- a Kirkby Lonsdale self-catering establishment, or
- other Kirkby Lonsdale accommodation
Accommodation in Kirkby Lonsdale:
Find availability in a Kirkby Lonsdale bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.