The Countess Pillar

I've travelled along the A66 hundreds of times but never actually noticed this little monument until recently. I've copied and pasted some info below -

The Countess Pillar
A pillar erected by Lady Anne Clifford to mark the spot where, in 1616, she said goodby to her mother, Margaret, for the last time. The story deserves a bit more explanation than those bald facts. It seems that when Lady Anne's father, the 3rd Earl of Cumberland, died, all his estates went to his brother, Lady Anne's uncle. Lady Anne believed that she had the right to the estates, and launched a long legal process to retrieve them. Her mother was her staunch ally in her struggle to regain what she believed was hers by right, though she never saw the final outcome, for she died shortly after their last meeting.
In 1643, after 29 years of legal wrangling, Lady Anne won her court case and became owner of her father's large Cumbrian estates. The pillar marks the location near the gates to the Brougham Castle grounds where she last parted from her mother. It is a simple column of stone topped by a painted, four-faceted sundial, topped with a gilded cupola.

Beside the Countess Pillar is a flat stone where alms was given to poor of the parish each year on the anniversary of Lady Anne's parting from her mother. Both Lady Anne and her mother are buried in the parish church of Appleby.