Kirkby Lonsdale (/ˈkɜːrbi ˈlɒnzdeɪl/) is a town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England, on the River Lune.

[5] Early signs of occupation include a Neolithic stone circle on Casterton Fell and remains of Celtic settlements at Barbon, Middleton and Hutton Roof.

In 1093, Ivo de Taillebois (Baron of Kendal) granted the church at Kirkby Lonsdale to St Mary's Abbey in York, which held it until the Dissolution.

Thereafter the abbey and its possessions, including St Mary's Church, passed to Trinity College, Cambridge, which retains the patronage to this day.

Each week stallholders gathered in Market Street to sell their wares, as did horse traders in the Horsemarket and pig sellers in Swinemarket.

[6] The weekly market and daily throughput of drovers and pack-horse carriers created a bustling town, with a total of 29 inns and alehouses, of which eight remain.

The steep incline of Mill Brow with its fast-flowing, now culverted stream was the industrial heart of Kirkby Lonsdale, with several mills using water power for grinding corn, bark and bone, carding wool, manufacturing snuff, making bobbins and fulling cloth, and sawing timber.

The streets were closed to traffic and filled with traders' stalls, craft demonstrations and entertainment, while visitors were encouraged to wear Victorian dress.

[11] The river beneath Devil's Bridge is popular with scuba divers for its relatively easy access and egress, deep rock pools (about 16 ft in a low swell) and good visibility.

[13] One of the world's bestselling thriller writers, Lee Child, author and creator of Jack Reacher, was living in the town when he wrote his first novel, Killing Floor.

He was living at 10 Abbotsgate, just off Mitchelgate, in Kirkby Lonsdale at the time -- his daughter Ruth was a pupil at the Queen Elizabeth School.

He chose the name 'Lee Child' as a pseudonym because it was short and would slip alphabetically between Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie on bookstore shelves.

Once a week he, his American wife Jane and friends would form a team in the pub quiz at the Pheasant Inn at nearby Casterton.