Bridging Time and Tales: Devil’s Bridge
Devil’s Bridge, lies just outside Kirkby Lonsdale, a charming market town steeped in history.
The bridge is a majestic medieval structure whispering tales of ancient drovers, mischievous devils, and the enduring spirit of humanity.
The town developed as a crossing over the River Lune, where drovers’ and pack-horse routes converged.
The narrowing of the Lune at this point would have made it a natural crossing point and a number of ancient routes converge here, although the actual crossing point for the original ford is not known.
One of the problems facing the early settlers was the fact the levels of the River Lune would rise following heavy rain, making it impossible to cross at the ford.
The answer to the problem was solved with the building of a bridge.
Prior to the construction of Kirkby Lonsdale‘s Devil’s Bridge, we see today, it is believed the first bridge would have been a wooden bridge.
This bridge would predate the formation of the current island.
It crossed to the east end of the island in the river known as ‘Far Lune’.
At Ladies Well, located in Lillywoods, just below Church Brow, a large kind of raft or boat was kept until the start of the 1800s.
It was used to take townsfolk across the Lune to Kirkfit meadow opposite where annual horse races were always held.
At a later stage, the meadow was used as the cricket and football ground to which people crossed by boat.
The fable, which the bridge is named, is supposedly provided by the Devil to enable a poor widow to reach her cow on the other side of the river.
In return for this, the Devil was to acquire the soul of the first being to cross the bridge.
The poor widow’s only other possession was a small dog.
On provision of the bridge, she picked the little dog up and threw it across the bridge, thus thwarting the Devil and saving her own soul.
Today, one of the main challenges facing the bridge is the dangerous ‘sport’ of tombstoning, where people jump from the bridge into the river below.
The practice continues despite the fact that it is illegal and there has been one fatality and several serious injuries over recent years.
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