This article was written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost on the 30th of March 2026. This article is unrelated to and separate from any and all of my other publications, including those wherein topics related to those discussed in this article are discussed. No AI was used in this publication nor in any of my written works. This article was published only on this website. This article was published in the UK on this UK website, and I the author am also from the UK and am a resident of the UK. The two photos in this article showing different parts of the Pennington Norse runestone were also taken by myself the author, the photo descriptions above the photos also contain information not in the main text, and the photos are very important, along with the main text and photo descriptions. Note I have published many different things recently, with different things published on different websites, and other different things published in different PDF-only books. This article on this page contains a total of 1695 words. 

Cumbria is often described as "Norse" and rather incorrectly so. The only runic inscriptions in Cumbria which can be described as more "Norse" and not as "Anglic", are located in West Cumbria, which may be suggestive of a cultural alignment with the Isle of Man and the Kingdom of the Isles, the Isle of Man itself containing a large number of runestones. The runestones in Cumbria range from being "more Norse" to "more Anglic", there are a certain number of inscriptions that are described as "Norse" through the characters used, and the wording, but some of the "Cumbrian Norse" runes are not typical of Norse runic alphabets. I myself have only visited two of the runic inscriptions in Cumbria that are written in a form of Norse or Norse-like language, the first being at Carlisle Cathedral - I have discussed these runes elsewhere without a photo, and will discuss them again elsewhere in the future, in a different way, with photos. The other Norse or Norse-like runic inscription I have visited in Cumbria is located at Pennington, a village close to Ulverston. The runic inscription in question is located in the St Michael & The Holy Angels church in Pennington. The church building itself, most of it, is around 200 years old, but the runic inscription is upon a Normal-style archway, which was found nearby. What can be read of the runic inscription also makes reference to the old church. 

There is some speculation that this runic inscription represents a late survival of a kind of Norse language on the Furness Peninsula, and this is not impossible. Indeed I think that forms of Norse were spoken in parts of England long after the so-called "Norman" conquest. But Pennington, like Carlisle, is not far from the sea, and the sea is that which gives access to the Isle of Man and to Ireland and Scotland, and I think again that these Norse runestones in Cumbria are connected to the Norse-Gael world in a specific way. 

Furthermore, there was once a carving of a fertility deity in St Michael & The Holy Angels church at Pennington, which has, sadly, been moved to a museum and is no-longer present in the church, possibly because the obvious fertility symbolism of the carving was not considered appropriate, but I honesty think that things like this need to be left in situ, they are a part of the pagan, older Gaelic church. And indeed this carving can be considered a Sheela-na-Gig carving, these carvings I have also written about recently elsewhere, and the presence of such a carving at Pennington church, alongside a Norse runic inscription, may be indicative of a connection to Ireland and to the Norse-Gael world, given also that Sheela-na-Gigs are found much more commonly in Ireland. 

The runestone at Pennington has been transliterated as: kml:lïta:þïna:kirk:hub*rt:masun:þi... . This is often translated to mean "Gamall (kml) raised (lïta)

this (þïna) church (kirk) Hubert (hub*rt) Mason, or "the mason" (masun), with the þi... assumed to be the beginning of another word. I have not quite included the exact same translation as others have because I am not so solidly convinced that most translations of these runes are correct. The part: lïta:þïna:kirk for "raised this church" seems fairly certain, kirk is also the Cumbrian dialect word for "church", albeit pronounced probably slightly differently. The first part of the inscription, which seems to read kml, is interpreted as a personal name "Gamall", but in Holman, K. (1996). Scandinavian Runic Inscriptions in the British Isles: Their Historical Context. Trondheim: Tapir, it is implied that what we read as kml actually reads as kuml - "monument". It is also often assumed that the latter part of the readable runes is implying that a "Hubert Mason" made the runes, but there simply is no accurate way of saying this, and personally, having viewed the runestone, I am not sure if it is implying that a Hubert Mason made the runes. In the Elder Futhark runic alphabet, as close as possible to how it actually looks, this inscription appears as: ᚴᛘᛚ:ᛚᚽᛐᛆ:ᚦᚽᚿᛆ:ᚴᚽᚱᚴ:ᚼᚢᛒ*ᚱᛏ:ᛘᛆᛋᚢᚿ:ᚦᛁ... or if you find it easier to view the inscription not in bold font: ᚴᛘᛚ:ᛚᚽᛐᛆ:ᚦᚽᚿᛆ:ᚴᚽᚱᚴ:ᚼᚢᛒ*ᚱᛏ:ᛘᛆᛋᚢᚿ:ᚦᛁ... 
Note that some of the runes in this inscription are used in a way which is not standard, for example the use of the vowel ᚽ in certain positions, and the use of both ᛐ and ᛏ as forms of the Tiwaz or Týr rune, representing the sound [t]. Note also that ᚼ is used to represent [h], the fact that ᛏ is used in the "Mason" part of the inscription might indicate that this "t" is pronounced slightly differently. 

However, in my opinion this "Mason" interpretation might not be entirely correct, and I think that in fact there are many aspects to this runic inscription which might indicate that the standard runic Younger Futhark alphabet may not help to explain all of the characters. I will discuss these issues below in the photo descriptions in italics, each showing parts of the Pennington Runestone. I am grateful to the caretaker of the church for allowing my dad and I to spend a little longer in the church than normal, she is very kind and helpful and I do wish that more people in the area around Pennington come to realise the importance of this church and of its ancient carvings. The photo descriptions are below, as are the photos, one beneath each of the two photo descriptions:

Photo below: a part of the Pennington Norse runic inscription, located at St Michael & The Holy Angels church at Pennington, visible in the photo below are the parts of the inscription which are transliterated as  kirk:hub*rt:masun:þi... or in Norse runes: ᚴᚽᚱᚴ:ᚼᚢᛒ*ᚱᛏ:ᛘᛆᛋᚢᚿ:ᚦᛁ... (note that not all of the inscription is visible in the photo below). The word kirk/ᚴᚽᚱᚴ is clearly visible, but the " Hubert Mason"/"masun" part is I personally think, a little doubtful, if we look at the part which says "Hubert", the rune which would be representing the second vowel in "Hubert" does not look like a typical runic [i] nor a typical runic [u], but instead resembles ᛅ [a] more strongly, in my opinion. Secondly, the word "masun" is I think present, as the runes ᛘᛆᛋᚢᚿ - masun, can be seen quite clearly, but the following rune after the break : looks more akin to a Latin lowercase b than it does to the Norse runic letter thorn, ᚦ in my opinion. As will be visible in the second photo in this article (not the photo below), the latter parts of the runic inscription are even more mysterious. The runic inscription in the photo below was taken using a torch to light the runes from the side and to show the shadows better, and it is colourful. 

Photo below: the photo below shows the continuation of where the runic inscription should be, as it continues around the archway from the runes visible in the photo above. But what is really curious in the photo below is that, even though it may simply be that the original runes are now unreadable, to me, the markings in the photo below do not look like runes in the strictest sense, but resemble more some kind of magical inscription using apotropaic symbols. It can be seen that the symbol furthest to the left looks like an M, and going across to the right, is what looks like another marking, then a break, :, followed by what looks like a small Latin K, followed by two upturned v symbols, one after the other, followed by another two upturned V symbols or an M-like symbol. This is my own interpretation, apart from the marks used for dividing words, :, the letters in the part of the instription shown below do not appear to be orientated on vertical lines, in the same way that runic symbols are, and as I have said, I see what looks like an inscription of apotropaic markings. Note that the photo below was also backlit with a torch to show the carvings and their shadows in more detail than is normally visible, also, I like the colours in the photo below and in the photo above. Note also the ladybird in the photo below which had decided to settle upon the runestone - God bless it.