Lammerside Castle, located near Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England, is a ruined 14th-century tower house that once formed part of a complex of buildings probably owned by the Warcop family.
History
The castle was probably built in the 14th century, probably by a junior branch of the Warcop family – it may have been owned by Thomas Warcop of Lamberstete in 1404. Constructed on the western side of the River Eden, the castle formed a imposing complex of buildings, with the tower house in the centre, wings attached to the north and south, and a barmkin wall forming a courtyard to the west, with other buildings further to the south.
Only the tower now survives, constructed of stone rubble and is 45 ft by 37 ft across externally, with walls 5 ft thick. It comprised two storeys, the ground floor being barrel-vaulted, and the now-ruined upper floor forming accommodation for the local lord. A circular staircase on the north side of the tower has been largely lost.
By 1576, the area around the castle had been enclosed by the neighbouring Wharton family to form the Wharton Hall deer park. If still occupied at that point, the Lammerside site would certainly then have been abandoned. In the 21st century, the tower is protected under UK law as a Grade II listed building and Scheduled Monument.
Bibliography
- Cowper, H.S. (1904) ‘Lammerside Castle’ Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Volume 4 pp. 85-91.
- Royal Commission for Historic Monuments in England. (1936) An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland. London, UK: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
- Curwen, John F. (1932) The Later Records Relating To North Westmorland Or the Barony of Appleby. Kendal, UK: Titus Wilson and Son.
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: “Lammerside Castle“, author John Illingworth, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.