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The 'River Eden' is a British river in Cumbria, England that flows through Carlisle on its way into the Solway Firth.
It rises in Black Fell Moss, on the high ground between High Seat, Yorkshire Dales and Hugh Seat, above Mallerstang Edge.
Here it forms the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire - and two other great rivers arise in the same peat bogs within a kilometer of each other: the river Swale and river Ure.
It starts life as Red Gill, then becomes Hell Gill, before turning north and joining with Ais Gill to become the River Eden. (Hell Gill Force, just before it meets Ais Gill, is the highest waterfall along the Eden).
The steep-sided dale of Mallerstang [[1]] later opens out as it becomes the vale of Eden, past Kirkby Stephen and Appleby-in-Westmorland. The river receives the water of many Pennine becks flowing off the Pennines to the east, and longer rivers from the Lakes off to the west, including the River Lyvennet, River Leith and River Eamont which arrives via Ullswater and Penrith.
Continuing north, it passes the ancient stone Long Meg and Her Daughters and the sparsely populated beef and dairy farming regions of the vale of Cumbria. After flowing through Wetheral it merges with the River Irthing from the east, followed by the River Petteril and River Caldew from the south as it winds slowly through Carlisle. Its junction with the Caldew in north Carlisle marks the point where Hadrian's Wall crosses the river only five miles before both reach their end at the tidal flats. It enters the Solway Firth near the mouth of the River Esk after a total distance of 90 miles (145 km).
The river was known to the Romans as the ''Ituna''.
Etymology: Celtic eidheann, E.Ir. edenn 'ivy

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References

Hamilton, John, ''Mallerstang Dale, The Head of the Eden'', Broadcast Books, 1993 (reprinted 1999)