Kyloe Tower (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
East Kyloe; Kylay; Kilo

In the civil parish of Kyloe.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NU05913975
Latitude 55.65125° Longitude -1.90763°

Kyloe Tower has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Kyloe tower house is well preserved and retains significant archaeological deposits. It will contribute to any study of medieval settlement in the region. The monument includes the ruins of a late 14th or early 15th century medieval tower house situated on rising ground with extensive views northward towards the Northumberland coast. It is now part of a complex of farm buildings and its open views are obscured by trees to the north and east. The tower is rectangular in shape and measures 10m by 11.7m externally with walls of ashlar blocks about 2.5m thick. The tower stands to first floor level, marked by a chamfered plinth and chamfered set-back with walls 4.5m high. The original entrance to the ground floor lies at the west end of the south wall. It is now concealed externally by 19th century farm buildings. There is a single window loop in the east and west walls at ground floor level, but the eastern window loop has been enlarged to create an opening for access to the interior which is covered by a barrel vault. Internally, there is evidence of a possible loft structure at the springing of the vault, with the corbels which supported the wooden beams visible on the interior of the north and south walls. Access to the upper floors was by means of a newel stair in the south west corner entered through a small lobby. The south wall of the stair is the only part to stand above first floor level and has two square-headed window loops. The tower, which is Listed Grade II, is first mentioned in documents around 1450, was described as in good repair in 1560 and still inhabited in 1633. (Scheduling Report)

The tower is first mentioned circa 1450 and in 1560 is described as in good repair. It was still inhabited in 1633, but has since fallen into decay. In its original form, it consisted of a square tower standing in the N.W. corner of a small courtyard, the outline of which, to the east and south, may still be traced, although obscured by modern farm buildings. (PastScape ref. Bates)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018444, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 31711
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1303192
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 6055.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N3739.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- 2010 Feb 24, 'Stone face found during Kyloe Tower restoration' Berwick Journal Live
  St Astier consulting contractors
Books
- Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 58-9
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Castles and Tower Houses of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 72
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 200 (slight)
  Pevsner, N., 1992 (revised by Grundy, John et al), Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p. 370
  Rowland, T.H., 1987 (reprint1994), Medieval Castles, Towers, Peles and Bastles of Northumberland (Sandhill Press) p. 23
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 336
  Graham, Frank, 1976, The Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham) p. 223
  Long, B., 1967, Castles of Northumberland (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) p. 129-130
  Hugill, R.,1939, Borderland Castles and Peles (1970 Reprint by Frank Graham) p. 142-3
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Bates, C.J., 1891, Border Holds of Northumberland (London and Newcastle: Andrew Reid) p. 19 (Also published as the whole of volume 14 (series 2) of Archaeologia Aeliana view online)
  Raine, J., 1852, History and Antiquities of North Durham (London) p. 194-5
Periodical Articles
- Craw, 1923-5, 'Reports of meetings for 1925' History of the Berwickshire Naturalist Club Vol. 25 p. 367-8 online copy
  Hodgson, J.C., 1916, 'List of Ruined Towers, Chapels, etc., in Northumberland; compiled about 1715 by John Warburton, Somerset Herald, aided by John Horsley' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser3) Vol. 13 p. 9 abridged transcription
  Bates, C.J., 1891, 'Border Holds of Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser2) Vol. 14 p. 19 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1415 Nomina Castrorum et Fortaliciorum infra Comitatum Northumbrie online transcription
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kent, C.L., 2016, Beyond the defensible threshold: the house-building culture of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the East March, 1550-1603 (PhD Thesis, Durham University) p. 66 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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