Lady Anne's Way - Cliburn to Penrith

 Monday 7th September 2026

I had been harbouring anxiety about this section because of the long, unavoidable stretch of busy road with only grass verges. I should have been more concerned about the short footpath from Cliburn to link up with that road. The first few yards went through a farmyard in a most unlkely manner but I can't complain because there were footpath signs, but high up on a barn side, and it was only after much toing  and froing that I  spotted them. Further on rough pasture had several indistinct paths, and I wandered without checking GPS before getting. back on the path proper. Somewhere I lost the path again and ended up on the wrong side of a low barbed wire fence that I managed to straddle. It was a messy and frustrating start to the day. I would advise anybody walking this to pay careful attention to keep strictly to the path using GPS and make sure of being on the correct side of field boundaries.

The long stretch of road was not busy and turned out to be more amenable than I had anticipated and although boring I was now able to make good time for this 8.4 mile walk. 

A combintion of lanes and fields and wooded paths followed, all quite ordinary and not much of interest to see. Just before exiting to Brougham Hall the path through woods arrives at a strange home made gate in the wall with no footpath sign, and unlikely as it seems this is the route to follow and then some tricky map reading is needed to get onto the tarmac road leading eventually to Brougham Castle. There is a full history on Wiki for the hall and the castle which you may read if you are a devotee of medieval history, but, as this is part of the raison d'être of this walk here are the relevant sections describing Lady Anne's involvement:

Brougham Hall

The hall, usually sold in third parts, passed through the hands of various families in medieval times. Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford, the then owner of Brougham Castle, bought one third part of Brougham Hall in 1654. Amongst other improvements, she re-built the Hall's chapel, St. Wilfrid's, completed about 1659. Lady Anne's attorney-at law and later her steward, James Bird, bought her third of the Hall and manor after her death (1676), being the first person to hold the entirety of the building since the de Broughams.^[2]

^{As castles go Brougham is pretty impressive especially with its}

 ^{imperious elevated position} overlooking the River Eamont.

 I hadn't time but it would  be worth a visit.

^{Brougham Castle}

In 1643, Lady Anne Clifford inherited the estates, including the castles of Brougham, Appleby, and Brough, and set about restoring them. Brougham Castle was kept in good condition for a short time, after Lady Anne's death in 1676; however, Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet, who had inherited the Clifford estates, sold the furnishings in 1714. The empty shell was left to decay, as it was too costly to maintain. As a ruin, Brougham Castle inspired a painting by J. M. W. Turner, and was mentioned at the start of William Wordsworth's poem The Prelude, as well as becoming the subject of Wordsworth's Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors. The castle was left to the Ministry of Works, in the 1930s, and is today maintained by its successor, English Heritage

The road ends just past the castle then easy walking field footpath follows the bends of the river wihich was in lively mood boastfully reflecting sunlight from its fast moving currents. 

Eamont Bridge would look elegant and historic but it is hidden by a modern  ugly conglomeration of iron and steel, I suppose the possibility of something more aesthetic cofounded the designers.

Lady Anne's Way folows footpaths and minor back roads to climb up to the centre of Penrith and the finish, but that was closed beyond the limits of my penchant to trespass and I had to follow the main road into Penrith  finishing at Lady Anne's Way terminus in Duke Street. A taxi ride with a jolly taxi lady took me back to my car at Cliburn.

I am now looking forwards to filling in the remaining sections from my beloved limestone dales country starting from Skipton. See map below.

Singpost to Larch cottage where I bought rare dwarf shrubs over twenty years ago

Leaving the long busy road into pylon land. They are shown on the OS maps but puzzlingly better depicted on the 1:50 than on the 1:25

A bit of woodland, part of the varied walking after leaving the road

Brougham Hall

Brougham Castle, and below

Sunlight on the fast moving river

Old bridge abutment

Spot the old elegant bridge!

In Penrith

See the street sign, Duke Street, end of Lady Anne's Way.

Green, Lady Anne's Way, pink, the same and my route as plotted

Blue = done
Green= to do

Lady Anne's Way - Kirkby Thore to Cliburn

 Monday 31st August 2026

There was no alterative to a long there and back for this section with the need to park a car at the far point for next time. I could reduce the return distance to some extent using quiet roads. I could also see the possibility of using the disused railway line at one point leading dirctly back to my starting point, but if that was not viable I would have to carry on to the A66 death trap and opt for suicidal walking back to The Bridge, or extend the walk by footpath and roads to enter Kirkby Thore by the back door and that is what happened, so until I was back home I hadn't plotted the exact distance. It turned out to be 9.4 miles, that is more than I have walked for a long time, but although a bit tired at the end I was by no means on my knees ( good job in view of their semi artificial construction.)

After pleassnt riverside paths there were less friendly sections through woods with rugged twisting paths eventually leading to the superb red sandstone, multi arch Ousenstand Bridge. A long stretch of tarmac followed which I could see vanishing to a pinpoint, all too far ahead.

At Crossrigg Hall I was back on decent footpaths with more pleasureable walking. An unusual Victorian post box was seen here of a design I have never seen before. My path only skirted the hall, but the Wikipedia details fascinating history of a string of wealthy owners with military and East India Company comnections amongst others and leading up to modern times where there seems to have been plans to develop this into a leisure complex. I noticed the extensive use of proud and sturdy decorative cast-iron railings around the estate. During WW2 iron railings were comprehensively "acquired" by the powers that be to boost weapons and aircraft production. I wondered if these were rare survivors in this out of the way backwater. Just imagine the "Powers" coming round today and taking your railings - it is amazing the lengths gone to  and the inventiveness and improvisation  in the desperation of our situation at that time and that should be remembered. 

Further on a man on a quad bike stopped and remarked on me being a "lone walker." We chatted with interest for perhaps ten minutes on a range of subjects partly influenced by not much of a gap beteen our advanced years.

Arriving at Cliburn I decided to return by roads which turned out to be much busier than I had anticipated perhaps due to it being August bank holiday.

After having to contnue to the A66, the footpath  across the road to Kirkby Thore was blocked by large security fencing plastered with warning notices,  part of the on-going major realignment of the A66. Surprisingly I managed to open the gate and complete my walk to Kirkby Thore.

Immediately oppositeThe Bridge on the A66 where I had parked. Crossing that road was not for the faint hearted

Following the River Eden

Identification? Looked unusual to me

The splendid Ousenstand bridge. Unusually dominating considering it is in the middle of nowhere on a relatively minor road

Tarmac disappearing a long way into the distance

See close up of rare Victorian post box below

The superb iron railngs mentioned above. They look to be in too good condition for circa WW2 unless they have been meticulously maintained over the years 

More of interest on this Crossrigg estate, a fine avenue of oak trees

Quite a lot of corn being grown in the area

Cliburn

Odd?

Blue Lady Anne's way (not a river.) My route red

Blue    = Done
 Green = To do

Lady Anne's Way - Appleby to Kirkby Thore

Tuesday 25th August 2026

A problem with any walk is finding somewhere close to the route to park either at the beginning of the walk or the end. I usually research this using Google Earth. Today I had found The Bridge, a closed down restaurant exactly on Lady Anne's route facing onto the hugely dangerous A66 and exactly seven miles from my last destination at Appleby. Unfortunately I failed to take a photo of The Bridge so I cribbed the photo below from an estate agent's site. At first the jpeg image seemed to be locked (copyright?) Using Preview on my Mac I took a screenshot and saved it as a jpeg and athough this is a poor quality image it serves the purpose.You will see there is a large vacant car park to the rear, and in the spirit of my gung-ho use of the photo I had no qualms in using that car park. I recruited my previously used taxi man from the last section of this campaign and he picked me up at 9:00 am and dropped me back at Appleby so I was off to a good start at 9:10 am.

The route took me pleasingly through Appleby. I have driven past the large column at the top of Boroughgate many times but today I had the pleasure of  walking past, and then onward down Boroughgate to cross the river Eden and then climb out of Appleby to gain mainly old drovers lanes for the rest of the walk almost all on level ground.

From AI:

High Cross: Built circa 1670 as a Doric pillar monument at the south end of Boroughgate, bearing the inscription "Retain your loyalty, preserve your rights". Its stepped base was historically used for selling cheese.

I'm not sure of the sentiment of that quotation. King Charles 11 was on the throne and there was much politico/religious stuff going on.

The walking was almost all level and easy to follow with one short badly overgrown grass field, but the rest was  on lanes and a some tarmac. This would have been a fairly unremarkable country stroll but as with the whole of Lady Anne's Way one is accompanied almost all of the time by views of hills not too far away with the Pennines to the right, and now the northern Lake District to the left.

Arriving back at The Bridge I needed to rurn right onto the A66 to head back to Penrith and south on the M6. Approaches from left and right on the A66 were blind at a distance enough to make the right turn a risky manoeuvre with danger from traffic approaching from either direction, but as you will deduce I survived. Next ime I will need to do it again on foot straight across to pick up continution of Lady Anne's Way.

 

The Bridge. This was a well respected restaurant but now in dilapidated condition and has been  on  the market with no takers for a long time. I will need to use heir car park again for my next section

The 1670 column at the top of Boroughgate in Appleby

Crossing the River Eden

Pennine Hills. High Cup Nick in the dip at right end

Murton Pike

A rare field of overgrown grass. The rest of the walk was on agreeable surfaces and I made good time

An unusual take on stile construction

I tried to get an internet translation but it didn't make much sense:

"pool house" or "pond house"

Shame, I thought I had found something interesting from an educated farmer, a little knowledge...

The main line north

Far Broom farm - zoom to  geese below

Broad Lea. A well found residence

Over the beck leading into Long Marton

The village institute in Long Marton. I couldn't even be sure there was writing on the plaque. My camera zoom triumphed- see below

The village shop in Kirkby Thore. The artic. on the left had been delivering at the shop and had needed to reverse out of the road to the right being directed by the shop owner with much drama while I watched on

There were a few of these bespoke benches in Kirkby Thore dedicated to jubilee/millenium etc.