Arthuret is a civil parish in Cumbria, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,434, increasing to 2,471 at the 2011 census. [1] The parish includes the town of Longtown and the village of Easton. It is bounded by the River Esk to the west and the River Lyne to the south.
The interpretation of the name Arthuret has presented problems. The name can possibly be associated with the battle of Armterid recorded in the mid-10th century Welsh Annales Cambriae as having taken place in c. 573; Armterid (spelt Arfderydd in Modern Welsh) is composed of arm-, perhaps meaning "arms, weapon" (arf in Modern Welsh, borrowed ultimately from Latin arma, "arms, armour") – or perhaps an Old Welsh cognate of Old Irish airm meaning 'place' – and a second element terid "ardent, fierce; flaming, blazing; fast, nimble, swift" (terydd in Modern Welsh, a loan from Latin torridus, "scorched, parched, burned"). However, "...it seems safer to leave the interpretation of ' Armterid' an open question." [2]
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The site of the church overlooks a suggested site of the Battle of Arfderydd, fought in 573 A.D., mention of which appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini and also in the Annales Cambriae (written c1100 A.D. where it appears as 'Bellum armterid'). The battle took place very early in the reign of the King of Strathclyde, Rhydderch Hael, (patron of St. Kentigern, and Myrddin's supposed brother-in-law), between the Warlord Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio and his cousins Peredur and Gwrgi, Princes of either Ebrauc (modern York), or possibly from Gwynedd. In this battle, Gwenddoleu lost his life, and it is not known if one of his brothers, Nudd and Caw, survived to succeed him as king of Arfderydd afterwards.
In this battle Myrddin killed his nephew (by his sister Gwenddydd, wife of King Rhydderch Hael), who was fighting on the opposing side. This act drove Myrddin mad and he spent the rest of his life roaming the Forests of Celyddon (Glennie 1869). 140 other men of rank suffered battle-madness and perished in these woods (Rich & Begg 1991).
In the Black Book of Carmarthen is recorded a poem which takes the form of a dialogue between Myrddin and the Welsh bard Taliesin (Skene 1988); it records how Myrddin wore a gold torque and tells of his grief at the death of King Gwenddolau. The battle is said to have lasted six weeks and three hundred men were killed and buried nearby. It was one of the three futile battles of Britain, fought over a lark's nest.
St Michael and All Angels' Church is situated a mile or so to the south of Longtown, to the west of the A7 and overlooking the River Esk.
The church tower stones are unusual in that many of them have masons' marks which are clearly visible. This church was built as a result of a national fundraising ordered by James I and VI in 1607 because the existing church had been frequently devastated by Scots reivers/raiders, [3] and to benefit the parishioners who were mainly rejecting Christ's teachings. (James also employed more direct methods of improving the morals of the area, hanging notable reivers from both sides of the Border and deporting the Grahams of the Esk valley en masse to Ireland. [4] ) Part of the sum was stolen and this delayed the construction of the new church.
A holy well is located on the edge of the mound. It is a well-built structure, with stone canopy and steps. It was still used for baptisms until the 1970s.
The current clergyman of the church is the Reverend Brett Murphy.
Netherby Hall, the historic home of the Graham family, is a Grade II* listed mansion. [5] It stands upon the site of the Roman fort of Castra Exploratorum. [6] Its nucleus is a 15th-century pele tower, extended or altered in 1639 for Sir Richard Graham and enclosed by extensive later additions to the house (in the late 18th century), with further extensions taking place in 1833 for Sir James Graham l by William Burn. [7] The original pele tower is thought to have been built with stone from the Roman fort, [7] but the remains of the fort and its vicus noted by Tudor antiquarians have been obliterated by the later extensions of the Hall. [6]
In October 1592 the Scottish rebel Earl of Bothwell, his wife Margaret Douglas, and the Laird of Burleigh stayed at Netherby with Walter Graham and played cards and football. [8]
The Netherby Estate, owned by the Graham family for 400 years, extends over a large area of the parish along the Scottish border. A Gothick folly known as the Coop House was probably built about 1772 as an adornment to the estate. Coop House is now leased by the Landmark Trust.
Since 2014, the Estate has been owned by Gerald and Margo Smith. [9] A restoration of the stables and walled garden [10] that commenced in 2016 was completed. As of 2023, holiday lets were available "above the stables, in the garden bothies and lodge cottages". [11]
Kentigern, known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow.
The Annales Cambriae is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later editions were compiled in the 13th century. Despite the name, the Annales Cambriae record not only events in Wales, but also events in Ireland, Cornwall, England, Scotland and sometimes further afield, though the focus of the events recorded especially in the later two-thirds of the text is Wales.
Myrddin Wyllt is a figure in medieval Welsh legend. In Middle Welsh poetry he is accounted a chief bard, the speaker of several poems in The Black Book of Carmarthen and The Red Book of Hergest. He is called Wyllt—"the Wild"—by Elis Gruffydd, and elsewhere Myrddin Emrys ("Ambrosius"), Merlinus Caledonensis or Merlin Sylvestris("of the woods"). Myrddin Wylt was born in 540 CE.
Peredur is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in sub-Roman Britain. The Peredur who is most familiar to a modern audience is the character who made his entrance as a knight in the Arthurian world of Middle Welsh prose literature.
Lailoken was a semi-legendary madman and prophet who lived in the Caledonian Forest in the late 6th century. The Life of Saint Kentigern mentions "a certain foolish man, who was called Laleocen" living at or near the village of Peartnach (Partick) within the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Laleocen correctly prophesied the death of King Rhydderch Hael.
Longtown is a market town in Cumbria, England, just south of the Scottish Border. It has a sheep market which was at the centre of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth crisis. Just south-west of Longtown is Arthuret Church, dedicated to Saint Michael and All Angels.
Drumelzier, is a village and civil parish on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders.
The Battle of Arfderydd was fought in medieval Britain in AD 573, according to the Annales Cambriae. The opposing armies are identified in a number of Old Welsh sources but vary between them, perhaps suggesting several allied armies were involved. The main adversaries appear to have been Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio and either the princely brothers Peredur and Gwrgi or King Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde. Gwenddoleu was defeated and killed in the battle. His bard, Myrddin Wyllt, reportedly went mad and ran into the forest. He is one of several proposed origins for the Arthurian character Merlin. The Welsh Triads refer to this battle as one of the "Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain", along with the Battle of Camlann and the Battle of the Trees.
Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio or Gwenddolau was a Brythonic king who ruled in Arfderydd. This is in what is now south-west Scotland and north-west England in the area around Hadrian's Wall and Carlisle during the sub-Roman period in Britain. Carwinley near Longtown north of Carlisle possibly derives from Cumbric Caer Wenddolau or Gwenddolau's Fort. The earthworks at Liddel Strength is also another contender for Caer Wenddolau.
Canonbie is a small village in Dumfriesshire within the local authority area of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, 6 miles south of Langholm and 2 miles north of the Anglo-Scottish border. It is on the A7 road from Carlisle to Edinburgh, and the River Esk flows through it. There are frequent references in older documents to it as Canobie.
The Anglo-Scottish border is a border separating Scotland and England which runs for 96 miles (154 km) between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west.
Vita Merlini, or The Life of Merlin, is a Latin poem in 1,529 hexameter lines written around the year 1150. Though doubts have in the past been raised about its authorship it is now widely believed to be by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It tells the story of Merlin's madness, his life as a wild man of the woods, and his prophecies and conversations with his sister, Ganieda, and the poet Taliesin. Its plot derives from previous Celtic legends of early Middle Welsh origin, traditions of the bard Myrddin Wyllt and the wild man Lailoken, and it includes an important early account of King Arthur's final journey to Avalon, but it also displays much pseudo-scientific learning drawn from earlier scholarly Latin authors. Though its popularity was never remotely comparable to that of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae, it did have a noticeable influence on medieval Arthurian romance, and has been drawn on by modern writers such as Laurence Binyon and Mary Stewart.
Stobo Kirk is an ancient church of the Church of Scotland. It is dedicated to St Mungo and is situated near the B712 off the A72 just 6 miles south-west of Peebles in the ancient county of Peeblesshire, now part of the Scottish Borders Council area.
Aeron was a kingdom of the Brythonic-speaking Hen Ogledd, presumed to have been located in the region of the River Ayr in what is now southwestern Scotland. It existed during the post-Roman era, perhaps earlier, and disappeared before or during the 7th-century conquest of the region by the ascendant Kingdom of Northumbria.
Liddel Strength is an ancient monument near Carwinley, Cumbria, in northwest England. It consists of the earthwork remains of an Anglo-Norman border fortification destroyed by the Scots in 1346 and fragmentary remains of a pele tower subsequently built upon the site. It lies on a cliff on the south bank of the Liddel Water, overlooking the Liddel Water's confluence with the River Esk; the last high ground before the Esk reaches the Solway Plain. The Liddel Water and the Esk (downstream) form the modern Anglo-Scottish border; formerly they were the southern boundary of the Debatable Lands.
Nicholforest is a civil parish in Cumbria, England bordering Scotland. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 372. The parish covers an area that extends about 10 miles east to west and 2 miles north to south. The area was once an extensive forest between England and Scotland, and was a centre for commercial forestry by the Forestry Commission. Today there are still many trees, watered by the River Liddle In 1870–72 John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described the landscape as:
Brackenhill Tower is a peel tower, in the parish of Arthuret, in Cumbria, just north of the River Lyne. The site is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Kirklinton and 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Longtown, or 10 miles (16 km) north of Carlisle and 8 miles (13 km) east of Gretna Green, and is a good defensive position, with ravines to the north and south. Extensions were added in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the original tower has had little alteration. It is the only remaining example of a Scottish tower house south of the border with England, and became a Grade II* listed building in 1957.
Arthuret is a civil parish in the Carlisle district of Cumbria, England. It contains 25 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, five are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish includes the small town of Longtown and is otherwise mainly rural. Two buildings originated as fortified towers, Netherby Hall, which has been expanded converted into a country house, and Brackenhill Tower, which is part of a farm. These, and structures associated with them, are listed. Some of the listed buildings are in Longtown, including houses, hotels, a bridge, and a church. Outside these areas the listed buildings include another church with associated structures, including a holy well, and milestones.
Coop House, near Netherby in Cumbria, England, is a small building by the River Esk, erected about 1772 as part of a salmon fishery project, and restored in the 1990s by the Landmark Trust. It is a Grade II* listed building; it is described in the listing as a folly tower.
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