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Shap

This small village on what used to be the A6 enjoys some grand views of the hills. In coaching days, Shap was an important staging post for the coaches before they tackled the daunting climb up Shap Fell to its summit some 850 feet above sea level. Much earlier, in medieval times, the village was even more significant because of nearby Shap Abbey (English Heritage), constructed in the local Shap granite, which has been used in many well-known buildings, St Pancras Station and the Albert Memorial in London among them.

The abbey stands beside the River Lowther about a mile to the west of the village, just inside the National Park, and it's well worth seeking it out to see the imposing remains of the only abbey founded in Westmorland, the only one in the Lake District mountains, the last abbey to be consecrated in England (around 1199), and the last to be dissolved, in 1540.