River Lune

The River Lune (archaically sometimes Loyne) is a river 53 miles (85 km) in length[1] in Cumbria and Lancashire, England.

Several elucidations for the origin of the name Lune exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic in genesis and derived from *lǭn meaning “full, abundant”,[2] or “healthy, pure” (c.f. Old Irish slán, Welsh llawn).[3] Secondly, Lune may represent Old English Ēa Lōn (ēa = “river”) as a phonetic adaptation of a Romano-British name referring to a Romano-British god Ialonus who was worshipped in the area.

The river begins as a stream at Newbiggin,[5] in the parish of Ravenstonedale, Cumbria, at St. Helen’s Well (elevation of 238 metres above sea level) and some neighbouring springs. On the first two miles of its course, it is joined by four streams, two of them as short as itself, but two much longer.

These are the Bessy Beck (short), the Dry Beck of 4.9 kilometres’ (three miles) length at 0.32 miles (0.51 km) from St. Helen’s Well, the Sandwath Beck (short) at 0.37 miles (0.60 km), and the Weasdale Beck (5.58 km = 3½ mls) at 1.6 miles from the well. Weasdale Beck is the uppermost headwater of River Lune recorded in Environment Agency’s Catchment Data Explorer.

An engraving entitled ‘The Vale of Lonsdale’ appears in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 together with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. The plate shows Ingleborough in the background.

Jane Edmondson original title for Quaker Pioneers in Russia was “From the Lune to the Neva” ie from the Lune river where her parents (George & Anne Edmondson) came from, to the River Neva, in St Petersburg where she was born as part of the Quaker experiment by Daniel Wheeler who went with 32 Quakers to St Petersburg at the request of Emperor Alexander I, in order to drain the marshes so that the then capital of Russia could expand. Publication date 1902 Religious Society of Friends, Publisher London, Headley Bros.