Friars Head:
Is a magnificent example of pre-Tudor domestic architecture at its best; its large and mullioned windows; its oak, nail studded door and ancient sun dial. Its massive chimneys solidly built thick walls and spacious dimensions signify that neither time nor money were spared in its erection.
Originally, it appears to have been designed and used by the Abbots of Furness; having considerable lands the monks would have kept large flocks of sheep, and were also known to have acquired the near by Eshton Tarn by lease in 1260, and were hence allowed to fish and catch eels.
After dissolution of the monasteries the estates were parcelled out by the Crown, and so after 1540 the estates of Friar’s Head fell into the avaricious hands of the “ Defender of the Faith”. A century later, the civil war broke out between Roundheads and Royalists. Tradition has it that Friars head was involved, and that it was covered with wool packs to protect it from Cromwell’s artillery fire stationed on a near by hill. The Royalist forces were entrenched on Scarnber Hill over looking Friars Head and Cromwell’s near Cowper Cote, after a fierce skirmish took place in the valley the slain were buried in the moat surrounding the house.