Bewcastle
The tiny village of Bewcastle is in bandit country between Hadrian’s Wall and the Scottish border. Its history and various buildings in the area are testimony to the violent past here. The Romans built a turf and wood fort here circa 79AD as an outpost beyond Hadrian’s Wall. This was levelled in 343AD, rebuilt in stone, and destroyed again in 367AD, although the vestiges of the fortifications can still be seen. In 1092 a Norman fort was built, making use of the Roman ditches, by a warrior named Beuth. This was a wooden construction, later enclosed in a wall using stone from the decayed Roman fort, a tradition continued in the next incarnation of the stronghold (the one to be seen today) in the 14th century by John de Strivelyn. After the Act of Union the border wars ceased, but there were continued troubles with reiver families feuding and stealing one another’s (and anyone else’s) cattle and sheep. There are small pele towers and larger bastles (fortified farmhouses) dotting the countryside, witnesses to the raids by Nixons, Armstrongs, Elliots and Musgraves. Even the church, built in 1277, rebuilt in 1792 and again in 1901, got into the act, with several early rectors being reivers in their spare time. The churchyard contains a magnificent 7th century Saxon cross, the finest in Europe even though the cross-piece is missing. This was possibly made by Syrian masons, with images of John the Baptist, Christ in the Wilderness, and possibly St John. Local legend proudly proclaims that only women were buried in Bewcastle churchyard – the men of the area all being hanged in Carlisle. Today the area offers quiet walking (unless planes are flying from the nearby RAF station), good birding – there are buzzards, lapwings and curlews in the surrounding moorland – and pretty cottages to stay in.
Click for places to stay and places to visit in this area
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