Castleton Castle Hill, Danby (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castleton; Daneby

In the civil parish of Danby.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of North Yorkshire.
1974 county of North Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire North Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ68830816
Latitude 54.46393° Longitude -0.93956°

Castleton Castle Hill, Danby has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Castleton was a motte castle devoid of a bailey. The motte is a horseshoe shape, and measures about 200ft from the north east to southwest by 160ft from north west to south east. The rampart, which carried the stockade, is still perfect on the western summit. On the south west it is enlarged to form a small hillock to bear a small flanking tower commanding the entrance, which was evidently on the site of the present one. This hillock and a similar arrangement which undoubtedly existed on the other side of the entrance is proof that no bailey existed (l'Anson).
The motte has an averaged height of 6.0m on the north side. Modern farm buildings occupy the summit, and there is no surviving evidence of either a keep, or a curtain wall. It projects from the hillside and is encompassed by an evidently dry ditch which embraces at the north east angle, natural scarp forming part of a general declivity on the north and west sides of the motte. The vulnerable south-east side of the site is protected by a strong bank on the counterscarp of the ditch. There is no evidence of a bailey (Field Investigators Comments–F1 RWE 25-JUL-6).
Cathcart King states that Castleton is mentioned in 1242, and notes that VCH records it as as a 'ruined peel' in 1336 (King, 1983).
Excavations in 1988 by S Sherlock on the castle ringwork revealed a series of post-holes and post-pads and a cobbled yard, all of uncertain date (Med. Arch., 1989). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004057, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ny1141
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 27885.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Turner, Maurice, 2004, Yorkshire Castles: Exploring Historic Yorkshire (Otley: Westbury Publishing) passim
  Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlisle) p. 18, 20
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 28
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 515
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 162
  Smith, A.H., 1969, Place Names of North Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society 5) p. 131
  Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p. 126
  Page, Wm (ed), 1923, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 2 p. 333-4 online transcription
  Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 45
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2 p. 211-2 online copy
  Atkinson, J., 1891, Forty Years in a Moorland Parish p. 280-3
  Atkinson, J.C., 1891, Forty Years in a Moorland Parish (London: Macmillan and co.) p. 270- online copy
  Atkinson, 1874, History of Cleveland, ancient and modern Vol. 1 p. 263-4
  Whellan T, 1859, History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire Vol. 2 p. 782-3 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Sherlock, S.J., 1992, 'Excavations at Castle Hill, Castleton, North Yorkshire' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 64 p. 41-7
  1989, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 33 p. 221 download copy
  CBA Group 4 Register, 1989, 'Castleton, N. Yorkshire NZ688081' CBA Forum (newsletter for CBA Yorkshire) p. 19-20 (brief excavation report)
  King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  I'Anson, W.M., 1913, 'The castles of the North Riding' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 22 p. 337-40 (plan)
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 214 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1881, 'The castles of England and Wales at the latter part of the twelfth century' The Archaeological Journal Vol 38 p. 340 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.)
- 1895, Thoresby Society Miscellanea 2 (Thoresby Society 4) p. 182 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Constable, Christopher, 2003, Aspects of the archaeology of the castle in the north of England C 1066-1216 (Doctoral thesis, Durham University) Available at Durham E-Theses Online
  Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 585-6 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.

Data >	PastScape		Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio