Skinburness (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Silloth On Solway.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY13585634
Latitude 54.89430° Longitude -3.34896°

Skinburness has been described as a Pele Tower although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Bastle.

There are uncertain remains.

Comments

It is difficult to really known what the symbols on the 1590 map actually meant. They mainly refer to sites that are now lost and which were never gentry status sites. This suggests these were not pele towers. It is more likely they were some form of bastle or stonehouse. The lack of survival of such houses in this area, as opposed to their fairly frequent survival in the higher Pennine lands, may reflect the good agricultural quality of this land producing wealth (once the area was politically stabilised and decriminalised) which allowed for the building of brand new farmhouses and farmbuildings in the C18/C19.
Presumably this was at or near to the borough of Skinburgh which was swept out to sea in 1305, though some earthworks of that town may remain. The 'tower' post-dated the town.
PastScape records 'Air photographs reveal earthworks that may be the remains of substantial walls (centred at NY 1358 5634), which may be part of the port described above. There is also evidence of possible building foundations (NY 1362 5639) and it is uncertain whether these are associated with the Grange or port. (Oblique aerial photograph reference number NMR NY1356/25 (17339/10) 27-JUL-1999)' Are any of these possible buried walls related to this lost building?
Either of the features seen on an air photograph may have been this tower. The 'tower' is not mentioned in the online NMR record or listed, as a defensible building, in the Cumbria HER mapping data. It may be recorded in the paper versions of these records.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 9637.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99 (slight)
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 23
Periodical Articles
- Bellhouse, R., 1962, 'Moricambe in Roman times and Roman sites on the Cumberland coast' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 62 p. 64-5 online copy
  Ellis, H., 1829, 'Copy of a manuscript tract addressed to Lord Burghley, illustrative of the Border topography of Scotland, AD 1590, with a platt or map of the Borders taken in the same year' Archaeologia Vol. 22 p. 161-71 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.)
- 1590, A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England (The Aglionby Platt) British Library online Gallery and Old Cumbria Gazetteer (see also Gatehouse Essay 'The Aglionby Platt')

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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.

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