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Gilsland is a village in northern England about west of Hexham, and about east of Carlisle, which straddles the border between Cumbria and Northumberland. The village provides an amenity centre for visitors touring Hadrian's Wall and other features of historical interest in this area of rugged Border country, popularised by the Romanticism novelist Sir Walter Scott.
Its unusual arrangement of incorporating two unitary councils and three civil parish councils is due to the gradual amalgamation of hamlets during the 19th century. It has a population of about 400, most of whom live on the Northumberland side of the River Irthing and Poltross Burn.
Near Gilsland lies Wardrew. The etymology of this name is uncertain, but the second element is thought to be a Cumbric word corresponding to modern Welsh rhiw 'slope'.Bethany Fox, ' The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007), appendix.
Gilsland is situated upon Hadrian's Wall, a noted monument constructed by the Roman army in the early part of the second century AD and lately listed as a World Heritage Site. Gilsland is one of the few areas where a large portion of the wall is not accessible, this is not due to crossing private land but because the site is dangerous due to a derelict house and a waste ground. It is here that the wall cannot be maintained due to these dangers. The major Roman fort of Birdoswald lies a couple of miles to the west of Gilsland. The Wall itself was initially of turf from a point to the west of Gilsland, but was eventually replaced in stone.
During the 12th century the area now known as Cumbria passed from the control of the Kingdom of Strathclyde to the English King Henry II. This region was subdivided into baronies, the easternmost of which became the Barony of Gilsland, apparently named after an individual, although sporadic speculation by historians has failed to conclusively identitify him. This barony was ruled by Lord William Howard during the 16/17th century and stretched from Carlisle to the present-day village of Gilsland. Gilsland Spa, a locally renowned mineral spring, was named from the Barony and the name was transferred from there to the village, although most of the population live on the Northumberland side, outside the original borders of the Barony.
The ancient kingdoms of Strathclyde and Northumbria were eventually subsumed into what we now know as Scotland and England, but for most of the later mediaeval period the Borders suffered instability and lawlessness due to their mutual antipathy and the indeterminate nature of the border. There have been many attempts to romanticise the assumed incessant violence, starting with Sir Walter Scott, who visited Gilsland and got engaged at the Popping Stone.
As soon as the area was definitively pacified, with the Union of the Crowns and the suppression of the 1745 Jacobitism rebellion, economic activity rapidly increased. The original Gilsland Spa hotel was built in the 1760s, was already a popular summer resort by the 1780s and went on to provide a nucleus for the accumulation of guest-houses which now make up Gisland. The opening of a railway station in 1836 led to a boom in tourism. In the 1860s the name of the station was changed from Rose Hill to Gilsland, and residents of Rosehill, Mumpshall, Crooks, The Gap and surrounding farms and hamlets were invited to think of themselves as a single village, the name having been derived from the surrounding Barony of Gilsland.
In the recent past, several small coalmines operated nearby, but occupation has mainly been in farming and building trades, also haulage, and a white-lining business is located in the village. Funding is currently being invested in the development and promotion of the area for tourism, and residents are increasingly offering flourishing 4 and 5-star rated B&B and Guest House accommodation. Some 100 local people earn part or whole of their living from tourism. Hadrian's Wall Heritage Limited – the body charged with maintaining the World Heritage Site corridor – estimate that visitor numbers (already circa 400,000 per annum) are set to rise 8% per annum over the next 3 years, which could be problematical, considering that current numbers are already causing damage to the main attraction.
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