The society was established in
Penrith, Cumbria on 11 September 1866, with "five business and professional men from both counties" as founder-members. The then
Earl of Lonsdale was appointed honorary president. One of the society's first official acts was to campaign for the protection of the
Dunmail Raise cairn, and to organise an
archaeological dig on the
Low Borrow Bridge Roman fort, near
Tebay. Membership rose to 115 by 1866 (with around a quarter being clergymen), and "includ[ed] three ladies". while in 2015 it was a joint funder of work into a
dendrochronological dating on
Kendal's fourteenth-century
Castle Dairy. ==Publications==