[2] The church is approached from Kirkby Stephen market square, where it is almost hidden from view by the cloisters, built in 1810.

The first was built in the Anglo-Saxon era, and part of a cross shaft bearing a relief of Loki, the Norse god, shown bound and chained, survives from this period.

[2] The church was mostly rebuilt again in c. 1230, but has been significantly altered since; the main thirteenth-century survivals are the nave arcades, the north transept, and the piscina and sedilia in the chancel.

The church is also the home of the Roman Catholic congregation, following an official sharing agreement entered into in 1990.

The south, or Hartley, chapel has an early fifteenth-century altar tomb with an effigy of Sir Richard Musgrave (died 1409), and a fifteenth-century altar tomb to Sir Richard Musgrave (died 1464).