BROUGH CASTLE

ALTERNATIVE NAME:

BURGH CASTLE

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DESCRIPTION

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Courtyard castle, now ruinous, originally built circa 1100 and subsequently enlarged and modified up until circa 1659-61. It was destroyed by the Scots in 1174 and rebuilt towards the end of the century. Robert Clifford built the round tower about 1300 and his grandson, Roger, built the main block containing the hall about 50 years later. This was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1521, after which the castle lay derelict until it was restored in quasi Medieval style in 1659-62 by Lady Anne Clifford, the lat of her line. The castle moat occupies the north part of the ditch of a Roman fort (see NY 71 SE 77). Scheduled and under guardianship.

DETAIL

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(NY 79151410) Brough Castle (NR) (Remains of) (NAT) Caesar's Tower (NR) (1)

About AD 1100 a stone castle was built on the northern part of a
Roman fort (see NY 71 SE 77). It was destroyed by the Scots in 1174 and rebuilt towards the end of the century. Robert, the first of the northern Cliffords, built the round tower about 1300 and his
grandson, Roger, built the main block containing the hall about 50 years later. This was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1521, after which the castle lay derelict till it was restored in a quasi-medieval style in 1659-62 by Lady Anne Clifford, the last of her line. After her death in 1676, Brough was gradually run down and eventually its walls were robbed for building works. Under guardianship. (2)

Full description. (3)

Surface indications, backed by an excavation of 1954, make it clear that the Normans recut the ditch of a Roman fort to create a moat, and that material from the recutting was heaped over the Roman rampart so that the part of the fort not occupied by the castle could by used as an outer bailey. There are two further earthworks on the hill, the interpretation of which is less clear: (a) a length of rampart of Roman character with a ditch to the west of it, running parallel to the west wall of the fort, barely 100 yards west of it; and (b) a rampart and ditch which seems to have cut the neck of the land, barring access to the fort or to the castle from the east. (4)

Resurveyed at 1:2500. Earthworks and castle remains are well
preserved, and are open to the public. The outer works to the east and west of the Roman fort are probably contemporary with the castle defences. See photographs. (5)

Scheduled. (6)

Surveyed at 1:500 scale by RCHME Newcastle in September-December 1996 as a part of the detailed Brough Castle Survey at Level 3. The historical evidence and the description of the upstanding fabric are generally as described by Charlton (2) and the RCHME (3).

The moat on the south, east and west sides is in good condition, up to 7.6m deep internally and slightly less externally; in the north
the inner side of the moat attains a height of over 8m, but much of the outer scarp is destroyed in the erosion of the river cliff on
this side. There is some evidence that the courtyard of the castle
extended further to the east; here there is a triangular 'forecourt',
isolated from the present courtyard by the construction of the east
curtain and moat, probably in the early 14th century. To the south
of the moated castle, the defences of the Roman fort have been
significantly enhanced in the medieval period to create an outer
'bailey'. The two linear bank-and-ditch earthworks, crossing the
ridge to the east and west of the castle, are of a size and form to
be considered as defensive and are probably contemporary with the occupation of the castle. There is another bank and ditch across the ridge west of, and probably contemporary with the west example, but it is of more slight appearance. (7)

Additional references (8-14)

Listed by Cathcart King. (15)

Additional reference. (16)

Listed with plan and illustrations. (17)

Brough was in the King's hands from 1173-9 and from 1190-1203. (18)

SOURCE TEXT

(1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 1:10560 map of 1956, Provisional Edition

(2) John Charlton 1986 Brough Castle, Cumbria

(3) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 1936 An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland

(4) Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society

Birley E 59, 1958 Page(s)31-56

(4a) edited by I A Richmond 1958 Roman and native in north Britain

Page(s)117

(5) Field Investigators Comments

D Smith/13-OCT-72/OS Field Investigator

(6) English Heritage 1987 County list of Scheduled Ancient Monuments : December 1987

Cumbria Page(s)24

(7) Field Investigators Comments

Keith Blood/20-SEP-1996/RCHME:Brough Castle Survey

(8) by W Douglas Simpson 1982 Brough Castle, Westmorland

(9) John Charlton 1990 Brough Castle, Cumbria

(10) by W Douglas Simpson 1949 Brough Castle, Westmorland

(11) Henry Summerson 1999 Brougham and Brough Castles, Cumbria [guidebook]

(12) by Nikolaus Pevsner 1967 Cumberland and Westmorland

The buildings of England Page(s)231-2

(13) edited by Peter Furtado et al 1988 Ordnance Survey guide to castles in Britain

Page(s)165

(14) by Tom McNeill 1992 English Heritage book of castles

Page(s)84, 125

(15) David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the Islands. Volume II : Norfolk-Yorkshire and the islands

2 Page(s)491

(16) edited by Peter Furtado et al 1988 Ordnance Survey guide to castles in Britain

Page(s)165

(17) Denis R Perriam and John Robinson 1998 The medieval fortified buildings of Cumbria : an illustrated gazetteer and research guide

Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society extra series vol.29 Page(s)262

(18) R Allen Brown, H M Colvin and A J Taylor 1963 The history of the King's Works, volume 2 : the Middle Ages

Page(s)582

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Description

CHURCH BROUGH
BROUGH

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Planned market town, probably never completed, established 1092-1100.

BROUGH CASTLE ROMAN FORT
BROUGH

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Roman fort surviving as earthworks overlaid and largely destroyed by Brough Castle (see NY 71 SE 1). Scheduled and in guardianship.

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