The name 'Lanercost' is derived from Llanerch, a British or Gaelic word meaning
an open space in a wood - and indeed there is still much woodland around the Priory site.
It was in many ways a good site to build a monastery, in the Irthing valley close to the
river with good supplies of timber readily available, with plentiful building stone to be
taken from Hadrian's Wall and Roman quarries nearby.
Much of the early history is recorded in the Lanercost Cartulary,
containing contemporary copies of charters and other records from the early years of the
monastery, and the Lanercost Chronicle, giving an account of events
in the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth centuries.
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'Gillesland' is often confused with the village of
'Gilsland'. The barony of Gillesland
covered a swaithe of what is now North Cumbria, with the de Vauxs
based at Irthington Castle. Their successors, the Dacres,
later moved to Naworth Castle; it is thought that stones from Irthington were used in the
building of Naworth.
Robert de Vaux was married to Ada d'Engaine,
who had inherited the Barony of Burgh from her
father.
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