Barony of Kendal - Location

Location

Geographically, the Barony of Kendal is surrounded on all sides except the south with mountainous terrain and water.

• On the longest part of its northern boundary, it is separated from the northern Barony of Westmorland by the natural boundary of the Shap Fells, which are part of the Lake District's "Far Eastern Fells", being described by Alfred Wainwright as "the high link between the Pennines and Lakeland".
• In its eastern corner it borders upon the ancient Yorkshire parish of Sedbergh, which is nestled in the Pennines, and now part of Cumbria.
• To the south the barony borders upon the Lonsdale wapentake of northern Lancashire, and it touches the sea in its southeast, in Morecambe Bay, where the River Kent enters.
• To the east of Kendal, starting at the sea and going north, the barony borders with first the old Lancashire parish of Cartmell, and then with eastern side of Lake Windermere, which has the old Lancashire Furness Fells on the other side. (Both these old parts of Lancashire are now within Cumbria.)
• And in its extreme northwest the barony's parish of Grasmere stretched around the top of Furness, and reaches towards the heights around Scafell, and the Central Fells which separate the barony from the old county of Cumberland, which is now also part of Cumbria. On its north, Grasmere also stretches into the Kirkstone Pass section of the Helvellyn range in the Eastern Fells, which in turn link to the Shap Fells described above.