One morning the inhabitants awoke
to find a bridge had been built across this dangerous ford during the
night, and since no one knew who had built it, its erection was
attributed to his Satanic Majesty, and it was ever afterwards known as
the Devil's Bridge.
The bridge was very narrow, and, although consisting of three arches,
one wide and the others narrow, and being 180 feet long, it was less
than twelve feet wide, and had been likened to Burns' Auld Brig o' Ayr,
With your poor narrow footpath of a street.
Where twa wheelbarrows tremble when they meet.
The country people had a tradition that it was built in windy weather by
the Devil, who, having only one apron full of stones, and the breaking
of one of his apron-strings causing him to lose some of them as he flew
over Casterton Fell, he had only enough left to build a narrow bridge.
[Illustration: DEVIL'S BRIDGE, KIRKBY LONSDALE.]
Another legend states that "Once upon a time there lived a queer old
woman whose cow and pony pastured across the river and had to cross it
on their way to and from home. The old woman was known as a great cheat.
One dark and wet night she heard her cow bellow, and knew that she was
safely across the ford; but as the pony only whined, she thought that he
was being carried away by the flood.
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