Eric Robson's Penrith...

When you visit Penrith, beware of Vikings. Because, oddly, nowhere else in Britain do the genes of the Norse invaders and settlers survive so strongly in the modern population, according to a study done for BBC television. Proof, presumably, that the northmen, who by then had given up their horned helmet, Hollywood shenanigans, found in the gentle Eden Valley around the town land to farm and local women to marry.

There is one, more substantial Viking legacy that you can visit - what's known as the giant's grave in St. Andrews churchyard. It's marked out by Norse crosses and hogback tomb covers. But the giant in question is enough to make a Hollywood scriptwriter dribble.

He was either:

a. Ewan Caesarius, an evil baron of gigantic stature who terrorised the Penrith area and was eventually sorted out by King Arthur.
or
b. Owain, leader of the ancient British kingdom of Rheged (more about him at the Rheged discovery centre a couple of miles along the A66).
or
c. Owen Caesarius, King of Strathclyde and Cumbria from 925 to 937 when he was defeated by the seventh cavalry. (He was actually beaten by King Athelstan but Hollywood probably hasn't heard of him.)

Take your pick.