<< Our Photo Pages >> Brampton Castle Mound and Well - Misc. Earthwork in England in Cumbria
Submitted by Anne T on Sunday, 04 September 2022 Page Views: 814
Multi-periodSite Name: Brampton Castle Mound and Well Alternative Name: Mote Castle Mound and Beacon StationCountry: England
NOTE: This site is 2.281 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Cumbria Type: Misc. Earthwork
Nearest Town: Brampton
Map Ref: NY5333261284
Latitude: 54.944019N Longitude: 2.730048W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
Misc. Earthwork in Cumbria
This site is 12th/13th century, so later than most of the sites on the Portal. I've submitted this because we've visited Brampton on many occasions and been unaware of this very interesting site. A scheduled monument, it is recorded as Historic England List ID 1013967, "The Mote Castle mound, medieval motte castle and site of late medieval beacon".
The site is heavily wooded, so it's difficult to ascertain the true height and scale of this site, which is truly impressive and much, much larger than other traditional motte sites we've visited previously. Sitting next to a popular 2-mile ridge walk around Brampton, various paths surround the motte, at various levels around its height.
The Historic England entry tells us: 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). "
Downslope can be found the Moat Well, at NY 53226 61255, which now has a very heavy, Victorian frontage with tank behind, but looks as if may have been one of the water sources for the original castle.
We parked near the Howard Memorial Shelter at NY 53575 61221, then walked up the footpaths, turning left just before the house at the top of the slope, progressing round the middle of the motte, then dropping down to Moat Well.
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