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Wikipedia / Shap

Shap is a village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. The village is in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 Census.

Location

The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway. It is situated from Penrith and about from Kendal.

Shap is on the route of the Coast to Coast Walk.

Toponymy

Early (12th and 13th century) forms such as Hep and Yheppe point to an Old Norse rendering Hjáp of an Old English original Hēap = "heap" (of stones), probably referring to an ancient stone circle, cairn or to the Shap Stone Avenue just to the west of the village.

History

Although Shap is a small village in terms of population, it is legally a market town with a charter dating from the 17th century. The parish was administered between 1905 and 1935 by an urban district council. At one time, the granite works situated a mile outside the village was a separate community, with its own Co-op store. Shap polished pink granite can be found in many buildings in the UK, including outside St Paul's Cathedral in London.

The village also lies at the centre of one of Britain's most important prehistoric ritual landscapes. The surrounding area contains a remarkable concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, including numerous stone circles, burial cairns, standing stones and henges, making the Eden Valley one of the richest megalithic landscapes in northern England. Archaeologists have identified at least eleven stone circles and numerous burial monuments in the vicinity, with major ceremonial complexes extending towards Penrith and Long Meg.

The most significant monument is Shap Stone Avenue, a vast ceremonial complex constructed during the Late Neolithic. Originally extending for around 3.2 kilometres (2 miles), it comprised a long avenue of standing stones linked to stone circles, burial cairns and other monuments. Before much of it was destroyed from the eighteenth century onwards, antiquarians including William Stukeley regarded it as comparable in scale and importance to Avebury in Wiltshire. Although only fragments survive today, Shap Avenue is recognised as one of the largest and most significant prehistoric ceremonial monuments in Britain.

Other important prehistoric monuments lie around the village. White Raise is an Early Bronze Age round cairn on the hills west of Shap, excavated in the nineteenth century, where cremated human remains and fragments of a decorated urn were discovered. To the north, Gunnerkeld Stone Circle is one of England's largest concentric stone circles, comprising an outer ring of nineteen granite megaliths surrounding an inner circle of thirty-one stones. An additional concentric circle - Shapbeck Stone Circle - was discovered on the eastern edge of Knipe Scar.

Climate

Shap has a oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), like the vast majority of the British Isles.

At an elevation of , Shap is notably cooler as well as wetter than surrounding lowland areas, and considerably wetter than lowland Southern England, as it is exposed to the prevailing west-southwesterlies enhanced by orographic lift.

Today

In 2014, the library was in the process of being relinquished from local council control and adopted by the community as part of a budget cutting measure. As of 2025, it is operated as "Shap Library Link" by the local council.

On 3 November 2025, a Glasgow to London Avanti West Coast train with 86 passengers and five crew derailed near the village due to a landslide. There were four minor injuries.

Attractions

Shap Summit is located on the motorway at and the railway at . Before the M6 opened, Shap Fell used to be notorious for the difficult and dangerous stretch of A6 for drivers, and it includes a well-known section of the West Coast Main Line. It has a 1:75 gradient for trains heading north, and in the days of steam locomotives banking engines from Tebay were often used to assist trains. It has been popular with railway photographers and there have been many pictures published taken in the area, most notably at Scout Green which lies on the southern approach to the hill.

Shap Fell is known for Shap granite, a pink rock rich in orthoclase, quartz and biotite; Shap Pink Quarry takes its name from this.

Shap Abbey is nearby in the secluded valley of the river Lowther. Now impressive ruins dating from 1199, the Abbey was one of the last abbeys to be dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540.

Shap Wells has a mineral spa located in the grounds of the Shap Wells hotel which was used in World War II as a prisoner of war camp.

In literature

In M. W. Craven's novels, Shap Wells hotel is often used as a hub for the stories since one of the main characters, Washington Poe, lives nearby.

Governance

The civil parish of Shap (formerly Shap Urban Parish) includes the hamlet of Keld and parts of the granite works and limestone works. In 2001 it had a population of 1,221, increasing to 1,264 at the 2011 Census. The parish shares a joint parish council with Shap Rural, which surrounds Shap parish making it an enclave of Shap Rural. The total population of the since abolished Shap electoral ward taken at the 2011 census was 1,394.

Shap is in the parliamentary constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale.

For local government purposes the village is in Westmorland and Furness. Until 2023 it was in the Shap Ward of Eden District Council and the Eden Lakes Division of Cumbria County Council.

Transport

Train

The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (now part of the West Coast Main Line), opened on 17 December 1846, and runs along the eastern edge of the village. Shap Summit is the highest point on the West Coast Mainline in England, topped only by Beattock Summit in Scotland. Shap station was closed in 1968, though there have been calls for its re-opening. Penrith is now the closest station and is situated on the West Coast Main Line. Penrith has train services to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Bus

Shap is the terminus of Stagecoach Bus Route 106 from Penrith via Lowther Castle.

Notable people

See also

References