Bassenthwaite Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castlehill

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY21523265
Latitude 54.68285° Longitude -3.21874°

Bassenthwaite Castle Hill has been described as a Uncertain although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Close to Bassenthwaite manor so vaguely possible this refers to an earlier building there either a small timber castle or, slightly more likely, a crenellated manor house or small tower house. However, although this name appears on the 1900 map it does not appear on earlier OS maps. The Castle Inn (a notable coaching inn said to date back to 1770) is marked on the earlier maps, in the same font as used for the Castle Hill placename. This may suggest the OS map makers where marking a new building, with the name Castle Hill, rather than an pre-existing feature. Even if Castle Hill was a place taking its name from the inn the inn itself may have taken its name from an earlier structure or, now lost, feature, although Inn names often derive from their painted signs and castles are not uncommon as motifs. Must be considered unlikely if based on place-name evidence only, particular in an area where natural features can be given castle names.
The Lake District National Park HER places this at NY216326, as Gatehouse reads the OS map this is a building just south of the Castle Inn at NY21523265.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 10825.

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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.
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