Cumcrook Tower, Stapleton

Has been described as a Questionable Pele Tower, and also as a Questionable Bastle

There are no visible remains

NameCumcrook Tower, Stapleton
Alternative NamesComcriok; Comcrook; Gomcrook
Historic CountryCumberland
Modern AuthorityCumbria
1974 AuthorityCumbria
Civil ParishStapleton

Name centred NY 50407495. A map in the British Museum, dated December 1590, has marked 'Comcrook' with a tower symbol.

There are no visible remains of a tower at Cumcrook and no local tradition of one. The present farmhouse has the outward appearance of a bastle but the tenant says that it contains no extra thick walls (F1 RE 16-MAR-72). (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

The tower is marked 'Gomcrook' and is shown as on the south bank of the River Black Lyne below the Bailie, but this is a crude map and it it reasonable to suppose a location close to Cumcrook farmhouse. The Routledge family of Cumcrook were a significant local family of near gentry status, who seem to have had several houses in this area marked on the 1590 platt, but the form of those houses is not clear. A bastle of some from (a large pele-house type or a small superior bastle type) is possibly more likely than a three storey tower attached to an unfortified hall.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY504749
Latitude55.0668106079102
Longitude-2.77977991104126
Eastings350400
Northings574900
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

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.

Calculate Print

Books

  • Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 97 (slight)
  • Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 50
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 92
  • Jeffrey, A., 1864, History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire Vol. 4 p. 232 (facsimile of map) online copy

Journals

  • Harrison, J.V., 1965, 'The Routledges of Cumcrook' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 65 p. 320- 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 Sources

  • British Museum. Royal Mss Tract addressed to Lord Burghley AD 1590.
  • 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 > http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thelakes/html/maps/m048.htm] (see also [Gatehouse Essay 'The Aglionby Platt' > http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/APHome.html])