Clifton Dykes has been suggested as the (pre-Roman conquest) centre of the Carvetii, an Iron Age and Roman-period 'tribe', one that possibly led a resistance against Roman forces in 69 A.D. under the leadership of Venutius.

[2] This is based upon the evidence of a large (c.7 acre) Iron Age enclosure discovered there, plus assumptions about its strategic importance on the Eden Valley communication routeway.

The story of a local family, the Wybergs, whose property was forcibly sold by Oliver Cromwell in 1652, is told in Sir Walter Scott's novel, Waverley, which also features the battle on Clifton Moor.

The local church, St Cuthbert's, contains the graves of 10 men killed in the battle of Clifton Moor.

St Cuthbert's church contains a monument to a local benefactress, Eleanor Engayne, who died about the year 1395 ; according to the Topography and Directory of Westmorland, 1851, the manor of Clifton was given in the reign of Henry II, by Hugh de Morville, one of Thomas Becket's murderers, to Gilbert de Engayne, with whose descendants it continued till their heiress, Eleanor, in 1364, carried it in marriage to William de Wyberg.