Kirkoswald is situated in the fertile Eden valley. It has been a market town since it received its charter in 1201. It is one of the most charming little villages in Cumbria, nearly all built of red sandstone and delightfully embowered in trees.
Hereabouts are found things left behind by the Romans and the Saxons, and the village has a grim memory of the Scots who raided and burned it three times, including once after Bannockburn.
The houses which are of varied shape, size and style, straggle up the slope alongside the formerly cobbled street. many of the streets in fact were built using stone from Kirkoswald Castle, which at one time was a powerful mediaeval stronghold built in the 11th century in fact soon after the Norman Conquest. Like so many others in Cumbria, it was devastated by the Scottish border raiders, and has been re-built and fortified many times.
Today, still protected by a deep and wide moat (with water in it) the chief ruins are a wall with vaulted dungeons, and a fine turret 65 feet high, complete except for its battlements. Within, is a much-broken spiral stair. Traces of the gatehouse site are still here, and there are considerable remains of the towers 500 feet apart, each with a basement and two floors above. The active life of the castle was about 500 years, for it was founded in the 12th century and dismantled in the 17th.
Its famous collection of portraits of English Kings went to Naworth , where regretfully they were destroyed by fire.
Almost everywhere one goes around town you will be confronted by history. The oldest relics include a Bronze Age burial urn associated with nearby Long Meg and her daughters. The cobbled market square is still today the heart of the village, complete with its old stocks preserved alongside. One of the Inns still has its old bull baiting rings in the cobbles of its fore-court.
Nearby Nunnery House Hotel is a one time sanctuary where nuns are reputed to haunt the place to this day. One of Edens 'best kept secrets' is to be found half-way between the villages of Kirkoswald and Armathwaite...to the east of the Eden. Known as Nunnery Walks...no walker can fail to be amazed at the 'hiddden gorge' with its high waterfall. Stretching to the river Eden this beautiful wood is a delightful place to walk and to explore. Views of the gorge and fells can be obtained safely from the woodland above.
An interestingly named house called 'The College' was the home for 400 years of the Fetherstonhaugh family. The house started life as a college for priests in 1523, and contains fine oak panelling in the hall and staircase. The house has the remains of an immensly strong pele-tower, and in the lower part of the house more comfort and light has been provided by a projecting bay window. The house came to the Fetherstonhaughs in 1590 and has belonged to the family ever since. Over the centuries successive owners have added to its collection of old china, glass, pictures, furniture and curio's, including relics from more warlike days. The house is private however, and is not open to the public.
The beautiful ancient church of St Oswald has many mediaeval grave slabs together with an early cross head. To the rear of the church is a small hill on which is a detached belfry...these days a Victorian replacement of the original structure which dated back to Henry VIII's time. Apparently, the bell tower was placed in this spot so that the sound of the bell would be easily heard by the parishioners.
Below the west window of the church is St Oswald's stone well whose water come from a stream flowing under the nave. It is one of the odd features of this exterior, another is the porch with its projecting gable and its massive weatherwork beams resting on two great wooden supports on low stone bases.
The village takes its name from St Oswald, King of Northumbria, who according to legend, toured the pagan north with St Aidan in the 7th century. They stopped at a well on the site of the present church and converted the local inhabitants to Christianity.
To the left of town, below a band of trees is Nether Harescough, a typical fortified farm designed to repel the Scots and cattle thieves. Nether Harescough is famous for its 'luck', a small glass bowl of dark claret with a white rim. Nothing is known of its origins. 'Lucks' are thought to be connected with Celtic and Scandinavian 'magic cauldrons' precursors of the holy grail legends.
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