Castle Hill is a 11th-century ringwork castle in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, England.
Castle Hill was probably built by the Normans following their conquest of the north of England in the late 11th century. It took the form of a ringwork, located on a natural mound that was artificially scarped on the western side, and surrounded by a defensive bank and ramparts. The castle would have formed the eastern edge of the medieval settlement of Haltwhistle.
It is not known when the castle was abandoned, but subsequent development caused significant damage to the site. By 1840, although the ramparts most remained generally quite distinct, the southern side of the castle had been terraced, apparently for farming crops. By the 20th century, the western ramparts had been lost as well, the remainder being up to 1.2 m (4 ft) in height.
Bibliography
- Hodgson, J. (1840) History of Northumberland. Part 2 Volume 3. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
- Northumberland County Council. (2009). Haltwhistle: Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey. Morpeth, UK: Northumberland County Council and English Heritage.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page include those drawn from the Geograph website, as of 24 December 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Castle Hill, Haltwhistle from the east“, author Andrew Curtis, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.