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Furness Tours

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Highlights Tour

Some of the attractions which can be covered in a tour include:

 

The Abbey of St. Mary of Furnesia, a magnificent ruin of a vast and imposing building constructed in the distinctive local red sandstone and set in the deep, wooded valley of Bekansgill.:

Furness Abbey

 

Built in a Victorian Graving Dock in Barrow-in-Furness. Find out how Barrow grew from a small hamlet into an industrial power. Includes coffee shop, playground, and promenade walks linked to the Cumbria Coastal Way.

The Dock Museum

 

A historic hall about two miles from Lindal, recognised as the birth place of Quakerism

Swarthmoor Hall

 

The world famous Laurel & Hardy Museum in Nearby Ulverston.

 Laurel & Hardy

 

Walney Island is a small sliver of land that lie's in the Irish Sea like a defensive barrier across the tip of the Furness Peninsula, protecting Barrow-in-Furness its docks and surrounding areas. Walney Island measures just 11 miles in length and just under 1 mile in width at its widest point, making it the eighth largest island off the coast of England, the largest island in England with a direct road access to the mainland.

Tour of Walney Island

 

The Fumess area has always had a varied and chequered history in spite of its relative remoteness. One of the more colourful places is Foudrey Island, also known as Piel Island, taking its name from the castle. The castle and its island have been witness to some of the greatest events in history. This Island is only to be reached by a small ferry so arrangements must be made beforehand.

Piel Island

 

Gleaston Water Mill with its nearby Castle was Re-built in 1774, the present structure is a typical imposing Georgian building of three storeys, the walls and lintels of which contain much red sandstone, which was probably taken from the ruins of Furness Abbey. The roof was made of  local Burlington blue slate from  quarries at Kirkby - in - Furness and  it was re-roofed  with slates from the same quarry in 1990.

Gleaston Water Mill

Gleaston Castle

 

Conishead Priory, a rambling Gothic mansion.

Originally a hospital for the poor founded in 1160 by Augustinian monks now a modern-day Buddhist centre, Conishead Priory has a long history of healing and spiritual renewal.

The present building was rescued from dereliction in the 1970s and is being painstakingly restored by the Buddhist community, who have also constructed the magnificent Temple for World Peace in the grounds.

 

Sir John Barrow Monument. Overlooking the town of Ulverston on Hoad Hill, (birth place of Stan Laurel, June 16, 1890) is the dramatic limestone lighthouse facsimile built in honor of Sir John Barrow (1764-1848). He was an important figure in British Naval History and has lent his name to both Barrow Point northern Alaska and Barrow Strait, Canada.

 

The fascinating Lakeland Motor Museum nestles in the picturesque Leven valley, at Backbarrow, close to the southern tip of Lake Windermere.

A diverse and unique collection of some 30,000 exhibits, carefully assembled over a period of almost 50 years,

 

The Original Villages Of Barrow

 

Druids Circle Birkrigg

 

Dalton Castle

 

St Cuthbert Aldingham

 

 

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