The Galloway Stone

Nearest town:
Appleby-in-Westmorland (14km NE)
OS reference:
NY58780994
OS sheet:
91
Latitude:
54° 28' 58.61 N
Longitude:
2° 38' 10.64 W
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The Galloway Stone

markj99
markj99 Sep 6, 2020

It’s nice to find a site that you don’t have to walk for miles over moorland to visit.
The Galloway Stone is just such a site. Simply leave the M6 at J39 for Shap, turn left for Orton after 0.5 miles, follow the Orton road for 1.8 miles parallel to the M6. Take the right turn to Salterwath dead-end lane just before the M6 underpass.
The Galloway Stone lies c. 50 yards to the left after 100 yards along this lane.
It looks like a large chunk of Shap Pink Granite so it can’t be an erratic from Galloway.
The explanation for it’s name may be that it was a marker on the Old Scotch Drove Road for turning onto the Galwaithegate or Galloway Road.
As an additional point of interest there is an Ordnance Survey Bench Mark Bolt on The Galloway Stone denoting a height of 98.8m.

Folklore

The Galloway Stone
Natural Rock Feature
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 26, 2025

Near to the roadside going from Orton to Shap is a large granite boulder or stone known by the name of “Galloway Stone,” where it has been said goblins have been seen. I knew a person who chanced to be out on the large tract of moorland, not far from the stone after daylight had disappeared, when he saw an apparition which made such an indelible impression upon him that he afterwards became very unsettled in his mind.

Penrith Observer, 22nd July 1890.

It would be strange if such a wild, sparsely inhabited district did not boast a “boggle” or two. The Shap Fells have a few traditions, particularly in the region of the Galloway Stone, a huge granite boulder on the roadside leading from Shap to Orton, within a mile of Shap Spa.
The worst behaviour related of this Galloway “dobbie” was in connection with a well-known local carrier. He had passed the stone scores of times and “hed niver seen nowt nea [..] nor hissel’.” Nor on this memorable occasion did he see “owt” – that pleasure was reserved for his powerful steed. For one night on returning from market, the usually quiet, steady-going nag “took the st[..] – i.e., a determined stand – as it neared the block; and neither by coaxing nor threats could be got to move.

The animal ended matters by rearing and getting the mastery; then it smashed carrier’s cart, and damaged his marketing stuff, chiefly goods of his neighbours, alas; that the poor horse was completely unnerved was obvious from its trembling, foaming commotion.

Other human beings in the district were more unfortunate, for they did see uncanny objects at that very spot: “Summat ter’ble,” with the natural result that they were “varra n’ar scarred to death.”

[*]these words were in the gully of the scan and I couldn’t read or guess them! From ‘A glimpse of Shap Fells’ in the Yorkshire Post, 12th October 1910.

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