Penrith Town Walking Tour by Cumbria Tourist Guides

About

The walk starts at Penrith Tourist Information Centre and Museum, located in Robinson’s School (1670) and finishes at Penrith’s war memorial, the gateway to Castle Park, opposite Penrith railway station. On the way you will discover the places where people have lived, worked, traded, fought and worshipped in this area since Neolithic times.

The town has always been a vital meeting point of East/West and North/South trade and travel routes since Roman times and close to the crossing point of the River Eamont. This led to the development of Penrith into a thriving trading and agricultural centre. Penrith was also a strategically important defensive position fought over by England and Scotland for centuries. The town crest has the cross of St Andrew on it!

Penrith Castle is now a romantic ruin but it was from here in the 15th Century that Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) governed as Warden of the West Marches, attempting to bring law and order to the disputed Border region and control the infamous Border Reiver families. The legacy of this violent era can still be seen today in the defensive Pele towers which have merged into the architecture of the town and the Penrith Beacon, high on the hill above Penrith where beacons were lit to warn of impending Reiver raids.

Explore some of Penrith’s yards, built on the burgage plots behind the medieval town houses where large families lived in tiny cottages, and  where there were workshops, shops and ale houses crammed together. Visit the corn market, the meat market and the butter market areas and imagine the noise and activity  of market days across the ages.

On the way, you will hear the stories of the people of Penrith, the notable families of the area and the town’s most famous residents including Trooper William Pearson who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean war in 1854, William Wordsworth, the great 19thC romantic poet and William Jameson, landlord of the Griffin Inn and Champion Wrestler of England.

Scheduled public walks have been replaced with bespoke group options to meet visitor demand. All walks will be 1.5 - 2 hours long.

Join a qualified Cumbria Blue Badge Guide and discover what makes Penrith so special.
For enquiries and a quote please email info@cumbriatouristguides.org 

Please state the required date, time, and group size , including the number of children under 14.

Enquiries are welcome from  families, friendship groups and from organisations. Group size is limited to 20, but if there is demand a second guide will be sourced.

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