Crosby-on-Eden to Lanercost

Thursday, 9/18, the taxi took us back to Crosby and we walked 8 miles to Lanercost. The landscape is changing to rolling hills.

Whereas before it was uncertain exactly where the wall was, there are sections here where we are clearly walking on unexcavated wall.

I haven’t figured out why there is so much red in the water, in this case, the Eden River.

Lanercost was an Augustinian priory. The monks owned a lot of nearby land which supported the community.

Back to Edward I - when he came through to fight the Scots in September 1306, he was old, sick, and being borne on a litter. His retinue of 200 including Queen Margaret of France and Edward II needed to be housed and fed. Seven carpenters and a builder were employed to create temporary residences.

Apparently the monks were appalled when some of the king’s soldiers already in Scotland sent the heads of two of Robert the Bruce’s brothers to Lanercost, on sticks, to prove to the king they were on it. Such delightful people some of us came from.

By March 1037, Edward I recovered enough to proceed on to Burgh-by-Sands, die, and lie in wait in that tiny little Roman church mentioned earlier.

Edward II took over. Some say he wasn’t as motivated as his father to beat back the Scots and some say he probably just ran out of money.

Regardless, when Edward I died, Robert the Bruce proceeded to savage this part of England. Those of us with English and Scottish genes have double the bad behavior.

The Lanercost Priory suffered from Robert the Bruce, and worse, Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Catholic church.

The front of the church, on the left, remains and serves the community today. We stayed in one of the nearby buildings to the right of this picture.

Our hostess, Charlotte Graham, a British photographer of some renown, served dinner and all guests, who happened to all be hikers, not only shared stories, but continue to visit as our paths repeatedly cross on the trail.

We are at 37/84 miles according to the book.