Hayton Castle Hill (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY50685783
Latitude 54.91273° Longitude -2.77083°

Hayton Castle Hill has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A well-chosen site, artificially scarped and naturally defensive with double rampart and intervening fosse. On the south-west there is a broad terrace above the deep ravine. In 1863 there were "remains of a breast-work" on the top. (OS record refering Rome-Hall) The work, which falls in a private garden, is difficult to reconcile with Rome-Hall's description. Clearly there has never been a ditch, and basically it is a natural hillock artificially scarped into a mound 30m diameter, and raised by excavation of the top to give a form of ringwork. External heights average 3.5m in the west decreasing to between 2m and 2.5m in the east, although these may have been reduced in part by a terraced footpath around the base. The interior is now only slightly 'dished' as the result of landscape gardening, but around the northern arc the inner bank, although spread, still attains a height approaching 2m suggesting an original difference between internal and external ground levels of zero in the east varying to some 1.5 to 2m in the west. There are no indications of there having been a bailey. Topographically the work is situated at the southern end of a broad ridge, and has some natural defensive strength on the south and west sides, but Rome-Hall's "deep ravine" is an exaggeration. (PastScape–Field Investigators Comments F1 RE 23-MAR-72)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004591, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number cu347
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 12526.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2815.

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. 108
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 155
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 59
  Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 60
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 86
  Pevsner, N., 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth: Penguin) p. 136 (places this at the wrong Hayton)
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 40
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Collingwood, W.G., 1901, 'Remains of the pre-Norman Period' in H.Arthur Doubleday (ed), VCH Cumberland Vol. 1 p. 292 online copy
  Jefferson, S., 1838, History and Antiquities of Carlisle p. 403 online copy
  Whellan, W., 1860, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (Pontefract) p. 677 online copy
  Hutchinson, W., 1794, The History of the County of Cumberland (Carlisle) Vol. 1 p. 149-50 online copy
Periodical Articles
- King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127
  Hall, G.Rome, 1883, 'On Ancient Remains, chiefly Prehistoric, in Geltsdale, Cumberland' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 6 Part 2 p. 466-7 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

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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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