The Aira or Airey, Cumberland

Historical Description

Aira or Airey, The, a rivulet running 5 miles eastward to Ulleswater, on the boundary between Westmoreland and Cumberland. It rushes along a wooded rocky ravine, and makes a very romantic fall of 80 feet, called Aira Force. A castellated shooting-box, called Lyulph's Tower, stands at its mouth on the site of an ancient tower of the same name. The present structure was built by a Duke of Norfolk, and the ancient one perhaps took its name from L'Ulph, the first baron of Greystoke. A pathetic old legend respecting. Lyulph's Tower and Aira Force is embodied in Wordsworth's poem of the " Somnambulist:"-" List ye who pass by Lyulph's Tower At eve;-how softly then Doth Aira Force, that torrent hoarse, Speak from the woody glen." Aire, The, a river of Yorkshire. It rises in wild moors near Malham, in the north-west quarter of the West Riding; runs about a mile underground to Malham cove; then goes ESE, past Skipton and Bingley, to Leeds; then assumes a more easterly direction, till below Snaitli; then turns to the NE and goes to the Ouse, a little below Armin, 3 miles SW of Howden. Its entire length is about 70 miles. It is joined at Leeds by the Liverpool Canal, which follows it thither from Gargrave, at Castleford by the river Calder, and at Birkin by the Selby Canal.

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cumberland is available to browse.