Carlisle, Massachusetts, United States

🇺🇸 Carlisle is a town located north-west of Boston in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.

History English colonists first settled the area now incorporated as the town of Carlisle in 1651 on parcels of land of the neighboring towns of Acton, Billerica, Chelmsford and Concord. Carlisle became a district of Concord in 1780 and was incorporated as a town by an act of the legislature in 1805.

Geography Carlisle is located about 8 miles (13 km) south-southwest of Lowell and 19 miles (31 km) north-west of Boston. It borders the towns of Concord, Acton, Westford, Chelmsford, Billerica, and Bedford.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 15.5 square miles (40 km²), of which 15.4 square miles (40 km²) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) (1.09%) is water.

Conservation land makes up about a quarter of the town's area. Besides town-owned land overseen by the town's conservation committee, Carlisle is home to Great Brook Farm State Park and a portion of the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge neighboring the Concord River.

Activities Carlisle contains a library, a country store, a book store, a dentist's office, an automated teller machine, many residential buildings, and the largest playground in the state of Massachusetts (Carlisle Castle). There are two ice cream stores: one of the four branches of Kimball Farms, and Great Brook Farm State Park which is home to the first robotic milking system in Massachusetts and serves ice cream made from the farm's milk. Great Brook Farm is also the site of one of the premiere cross-country ski touring centres in New England. On the east end of town there is an auto body shop and the former (closed in 2012) Blue Jay Recording Studio, where artists such as the Platters, Aerosmith, Aimee Mann, Amy Grant, Alice Cooper, Boston, John Williams and the Boston Pops, Buckwheat Zydeco, Billy Joel, Lauryn Hill, Rihanna, Roy Orbison, k. d. lang, Pat Metheny, Yo Yo Ma, Carly Simon, the Pussycat Dolls, Genesis and Lady Gaga have recorded.

The town newspaper, the Carlisle Mosquito, has appeared as the weekly independent newspaper of the town since 1972. It is a non-profit publication distributed free to all town residents. The paper includes local news, announcements, and logs.

The Gleason Public Library is one of the 36 libraries in the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. Gleason Public Library also contains a seismograph.

Cultural organizations include the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra, the Carlisle Community Chorus, and the Savoyard Light Opera Company.

Carlisle Old Home Day has been held for over 100 years on the weekend prior to the Fourth of July as a free public event with family-friendly games and activities.