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Penrith

In Saxon times Penrith was the capital of the Kingdom of Cumbria, but after the Normans arrived the town seems to have been rather neglected - it was sacked several times by the Scots before Penrith Castle was finally built in the 1390s. Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) strengthened the castle's defences when he was Lord Warden of the Western Marches and was responsible for keeping the peace along the border with Scotland. By the time of the Civil War, however, the castle was in a state of ruin. The Cromwellian General Lambert demolished much of what was left and the townspeople helped themselves to the fallen stones to build their own houses. Nevertheless, the ruins remain impressive, standing high above a steep-sided moat. A short walk from the castle leads to the centre of this lively town with its charming mixture of narrow streets and wide-open spaces.

Penrith has a splendid Georgian church in a very attractive churchyard, surrounded by a number of interesting buildings. The oldest part of St Andrew's Church dates from Norman times, but the most recent part, the nave, was rebuilt between 1719 and 1772, possibly to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor. Pevsner described it as "the stateliest church of its time in the county". Of particular interest is the three-sided gallery and the two chandeliers, which were a gift from the Duke of Portland in 1745, a reward for the town's loyalty during the Jacobite Rising. A tablet on the wall records the deaths of 2260 citizens of Penrith in the plague of 1597.

The church's most interesting feature however, is to be found in the churchyard, in the curious group of gravestones known as Giant's Grave - two ancient cross-shafts, each 11 feet high, and four 10th-century hogback tombstones, which have arched tops and sharply sloping sides. According to a local legend, the stones mark the burial place of a 5th-century King of Cumbria, Owen Caesarius. Also buried somewhere in the churchyard is Wordsworth's mother, but her grave is not marked.

Overlooking the churchyard is a splendid Tudor house, bearing the date 1563, it was at one time Dame Birkett's School. The school's most illustrious pupils were William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy, and his future wife, Mary Hutchinson. William is also commemorated by a plaque on the wall of the Robin Hood Inn stating that he was a guest there in 1794 and again in 1795.

Occupying a listed building erected in 1670 for the education of poor girls, Penrith Museum features the archaeology, art, social, cultural and natural history of the area.

About a mile west of Penrith, on the A66, Rheged Discovery Centre dedicates itself to "a celebration of 2000 years of Cumbria's history, mystery and magic - as never seen before". Named after Cumbria's Celtic Kingdom, this extraordinary grass-covered building is also home to Britain's only exhibition dedicated to mountains and mountain adventure. It also has a giant cinema screen, speciality shops, pottery demonstrations, an artists exhibition area, restaurants and a children's play area.

Penrith is dominated by Beacon Hill Pike, which stands amidst wooded slopes high above the town. The tower was built in 1719 and marks the place where, from 1296, beacons were lit to warn the townsfolk of an impending attack. The beacon was last lit during the Napoleonic wars in 1804 and was seen by the author Sir Walter Scott who was visiting Cumberland at the time. Seeing it prompted Scott to hasten home to rejoin his local volunteer regiment. It is well worth the climb from the Beacon Edge, along the footpath to the summit, to enjoy a magnificent view of the Lakeland fells. It was on top of this hill, in 1767, that Thomas Nicholson, a murderer, was hanged. The gibbet was left on the summit and so was Nicholson's ghost, seen in the form of a skeleton hanging from the noose. The red sandstone from which many of Penrith's Victorian houses were built was quarried along the escarpments of Beacon Edge, and one of the old quarries, at Cowraik, is now a local nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the geological significance of the quarry faces.