Islekirk Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hermitage of St Hilda, Ilekirk; Hildkirk

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY259445
Latitude 54.79017° Longitude -3.15321°

Islekirk Hall has been described as a Pele Tower although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

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

Comments

The evidence seems weak for a significant fortified residence here. The 'hermitage' may have been fairly substantial, since it was let to the Barwis family from 1529, who replaced it with a modest unfortified hall, possible sometime after they were granted it in 1544. A reference in a ballad may be artistic creation or refer to a chapel belfry. On the other hand, the 'hermitage' was a grange of Holm Cultram Abbey from 1216, and there was clearly something worth protecting here.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1274096
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 9985.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3745.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 18
  Grainger, Francis and Collingwood, W.G., (eds), 1929, 'The Register: Islekirk'_The Register and Records of Holm Cultram_ (Kendal: CWAAS Record Series 8) p. 76-77 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Swift, F.B., 1950, 'Barwis of Cumberland' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 50 p. 141 online copy
  Collingwood, W.G. and Rogers, J., 1899, 'Lost Churches in the Carlisle Diocese' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 15 p. 288-9 online copy
  Bower, R., 1894, 'Brasses in the Diocese of Carlisle' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 13 p. 150 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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
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