In the northwest corner of England, just to the south of the Lake District, a peninsula juts out into the Irish Sea and Dalton is situated almost exactly in the centre of this fertile plain. In the first millennium A.D., piracy around the coasts of north-west England was commonplace, and many people left their vulnerable settlements near the sea and moved inland for their own safety. Dalton, situated on a hill, and as far from the sea as any other vill in Furness, must have been an obvious choice for most people.