River Eden
Local highlightCumbria's great river, running north from the Mallerstang fells through red sandstone country and Carlisle to the Solway
The Eden is unusual among big northern rivers in running north. It rises in the peat of Mallerstang under Wild Boar Fell, comes down past Appleby-in-Westmorland and Lazonby, cuts a red sandstone gorge below Armathwaite, and reaches the Solway Firth beyond Carlisle, about ninety miles in all. The sandstone gives the valley its colour: red cliffs, red field walls, red churches.
It is one of the best salmon rivers in England and holds white-clawed crayfish and freshwater pearl mussel, which is why the river and its tributaries are protected together. Lacy’s Caves, cut into the sandstone above the water near Little Salkeld in the 1700s, are a good short walk from the river; Long Meg and Her Daughters, one of the biggest stone circles in the country, stands on the bank above.
The Settle–Carlisle line runs up the head of the valley with stations at Appleby and Langwathby, which makes this an easy river to reach by train. The Eden Valley Walk follows it for some eighty miles.
