Ainstable is a village and civil parish in the English county of Cumbria. Historically part of the traditional county of Cumberland, it is now in the unitary authority area of Westmorland and Furness.
Ainstable was the site of a Benedictine convent (the manor of "Nunnery"). This is said to date from the reign of William Rufus.[2] However, Pevsner says that "the earliest reference is 1200. The nuns were so harassed by the Scots that in 1480 they had to reinvent their own charter, spuriously dating their foundation to 1089 and William Rufus."[3] After the closure of the monasteries, the convent building became a private home, held for many years by the Aglionby family, and is now a guesthouse.[4]
Eden Valley Woollen Mill is located in Ainstable itself.
The former village pub, the New Crown Inn, has closed and been sold for redevelopment.[5]
In 2014 Eden District Council rejected a fiercely opposed plan to erect a wind turbine near to the village and the neighbouring village of Armathwaite.[6]
Etymology
"This name, as first noted by Lindkvist (41-2), is a compound of ON 'einstapi', 'bracken' and 'hlíđ' 'slope'."[7] ('ON' is Old Norse).
^Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010). Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness. The buildings of England. New York; London: Yale University Press. pp. xx, 775 p.115. ISBN9780300126631.
^'We will continue our fight against turbines' The Cumberland News 25.7.2014 page 19. An action group (Ainstable Turbine Action Campaign Group) set up to oppose wind turbines vowed to 'fight any more plans for giant wind turbines in the Eden Valley'
^Armstrong, A. M.; Mawer, A.; Stenton, F. M.; Dickens, B. (1950–1952). The place-names of Cumberland. English Place-Name Society, vol.xx. Vol. Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 168.