Cartmel Peninsula

Hawthorn by the shore of the Cartmel Peninsula

The Cartmel Peninsula is a peninsula of Lancashire North of the Sands, jutting south into Morecambe Bay. It is divided from the Furness peninsula of Lancashire to the west by estuary of the River Leven and its bay, the Ulverston Channel, and from the seaward parts of Westmorland by the River Winster on its east. The Kent Channel entering Morecambe Bay divides Cartmel from the main body of Lancashire, south of the sands.

The Cartmel and Furness Peninsulas and the lands to their north (High Furness) form the northern part of the Lonsdale Hundred or 'Lancashire North of the Sands'.

The peninsula is largely rural. Its only town is Grange-over-Sands, a Victorian seaside resort, with the rest dominated by limestone outcrops and the overlooking fells. Grange's growth was a result of the Furness Railway, which runs along the peninsula's southern edge, with stations at Grange-over-Sands, Cark and Cartmel and Kents Bank. Before the Reformation, the area was controlled by the monks of Cartmel Priory.

The main towns and village on the peninsula are:

• Allithwaite, Ayside
• Cartmel (with Cartmel Priory and Cartmel Racecourse), Cark
• Flookburgh
• Grange-over-Sands
• High Newton, Holker Hall
• Lindale, Low Newton
• Newby Bridge
• Ravenstown