Westmorland (/ˈwɛstmərlənd/, formerly also spelt Westmoreland[6]) is an area of North West England which was historically a county.

The Rere Cross was ordered by Edmund I (r.939–946) to serve as a boundary marker between England and Scotland ("Scottish Cumberland").

Westmorland bordered Cumberland to the north, County Durham and Yorkshire to the east, and Lancashire to the south and west.

The baronies were each further subdivided into two wards: In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888, a county council was created for Westmorland, taking functions from the quarter sessions.

In July 2021, Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced the dissolution of Cumbria County Council and its six district councils and their replacement in April 2023 by two unitary authorities: Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness.

The latter re-united and re-established historic Westmorland within a single administrative unit, along with the Furness (Lancs), Penrith (Cumberland) and Sedbergh (Yorks) areas.

[19] J. E. Marr explains the name "Westmorland" thus: The name applied to the district by the Anglo-Saxons was originally Westmoringaland, 'the land of the people of the western moors,' in distinction from that of the people of the eastern moors, on the east side of the Pennine chain.

The design of the shield referred to the two components of the county: on two red bars (from the arms of the de Lancaster family, Barons of Kendal) was placed a gold apple tree (from the seal of the borough of Appleby, for the Barony of Westmorland).

In 2013, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, formally recognised and acknowledged the continued existence of England's 39 historic counties, including Westmorland.