Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CROGLIN (The)

CROGLIN (The), a river of Cumberland. It rises among the Cross-Fell or Penine mountains, near the boundary with Northumberland; and runs 12 miles west-south-westward to the Eden, 2 miles WNW of Kirkoswald. It traverses some wild scenery; and, at the Nunnery, between Croglin and Kirkoswald, plunges into a deep, dark, romantic ravine. " There it first leaps through a cleft over a precipice of 40 feet; next boils with tumultuous eddy in a deep rocky caldron; next shoots off at a corner through a narrow gorge; next rushes furiously in a succession of leap and cataract, through a chaos of obstructing rocks. The faces of the ravine are cliffs rising to the height of from 100 to 200 feet, partly bare, partly stained with lichens and mosses, partly shagged with parasitic wood. A wild path goes along one side, on rude timber galleries, at a giddy height, now shaded with trees, now standing blank out on the precipice, -enabling a visitor to look right down on all the series of waterfall and cataract.

The floods are roused, and will not soon be weary;
Down from the Penine Alps how fiercely sweeps
Croglin, the stately Eden's tributary!
He raves, or through some moody passage creeps,
Plotting new mischief. Out again he leaps
Into broad light, and sends through regions airy,
That voice which soothed the nuns while on the steeps They knelt in prayer.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a river"   (ADL Feature Type: "rivers")
Administrative units: Cumberland AncC
Place names: CROGLIN     |     CROGLIN THE     |     THE CROGLIN
Place: Croglin

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.