Brampton Motte (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
The Mote

In the civil parish of Brampton.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY53326127
Latitude 54.94394° Longitude -2.72997°

Brampton Motte has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A Medieval motte survives as an oval earthwork, although it may have been modified in the 19th Century. The motte is dated to the 12th or 13th Century and is cut out of the higher end of a long ridge. It comprises an oval-shaped summit plateau measuring circa 36m by 18m; 12m downslope there is an encircling ditch circa 5m wide and up to 3m deep. The site was used as a beacon in 1468 and a statue to the 7th Earl of Carlisle was erected on the summit in the 19th Century, at which time the mound may have been further landscaped. (PastScape)

Despite the addition of a statue to the monument's summit in 1864, Mote Castle mound medieval motte survives reasonably well. Its defensive earthworks in particular remain well preserved. The hilltop is a rare example of the site of a motte castle which was later used as a beacon, and it will retain significant archaeological evidence of both these phases of use.
The monument includes The Mote Castle mound, a 12th/13th century medieval motte castle located on the summit of Castle Hill in Brampton which was later used as the site of a signalling beacon during the 15th century. The motte is artificially cut out of the higher end of a long ridge and consists of an oval-shaped summit plateau measuring c.36m by 18m. About 12m downslope there is an encircling ditch c.5m wide and up to 3m deep which is flanked by an outer bank measuring c.5m wide and up to 2m high. There are extensive views to the west, north and east from the summit of the hill and it is for this reason that the hilltop was later used as the site of a beacon. This system of beacons was created to warn of impending attack by Scottish invaders and was developed from the time of Henry III (1216-72). A list of beacons dated to 1468 indicates that the beacon at Brampton connected with a system of beacons which ran along the Tyne valley to the east. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1013967, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 27694
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 12735.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 282.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Grimsditch, Brian, Nevell, Michael and Nevell, Richard, 2012, Buckton Castle and the Castles of the North West England (University of Salford Archaeological Monograph 2) p. 105
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 21
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 137
  Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 33-4
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 83
  Pevsner, N., 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth: Penguin) p. 76 (rather misleading)
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 39
  Collingwood, W.G., 1901, 'Remains of the pre-Norman Period' in H.Arthur Doubleday (ed), VCH Cumberland Vol. 1 p. 292 online copy
  Hutchinson, W., 1794, The History of the County of Cumberland (Carlisle) Vol. 1 p. 127 online copy
  Nicholson, J. and Burn, B., 1777, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland (London) Vol. 2 p. 493 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1905, 'Brampton Mote' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 5 p. 290-1 online copy
  Clark, G.T., 1889, 'Contribution towards a complete list of moated mounds or burhs' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 46 p. 197-217 esp. 202 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
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

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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.
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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.

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