Kirkby Lonsdale Cockpit Hill
Has been described as a Certain Timber Castle (Motte)
There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains
| Name | Kirkby Lonsdale Cockpit Hill |
| Alternative Names | The Cockpit; Cockpit Hill; Kirby Lonsdale |
| Historic Country | Westmorland |
| Modern Authority | Cumbria |
| 1974 Authority | Cumbria |
| Civil Parish | Kirkby Lonsdale |
Probable earthwork remains of a Medieval motte; reused as a post-Medieval cockpit. The mound is 130ft in diameter and in poor condition. (PastScape)
Cockpit Hill, 150 yards N. of the church, stands on a bluff on the W. bank of the Lune. It would appear to have been a small motte and now consists of a mound, about 130 ft. in diameter and rising at most some 19 ft. above the bottom of the slight ditch which surrounds it except on the E. The mound has been damaged by the formation of a path on the E. side and by some excavation on the top, perhaps to adapt it for use as a cock-pit.
Condition—Bad. (RCHME 1936)
Cockpit Hill Motte is a scheduled monument situated on a bluff above the steep bank of the River Lune, north of the church. There is no trace of a bailey associated with the motte. Curwen (1913) considered that the motte had been formed by cutting deep trenches across the high end of a ridge and the earth being piled into the centre to raise the level of the motte. The exact nature of the use of the Motte is uncertain. (Extensive Urban Survey)
Before the Conquest Thorfinnr held Kirkby Lonsdale as one of his twelve manors in Austwick. By 1100 Ivo Talebois held it as Baron of Kendal and gave the church with its land, amounting to perhaps three-quarters of the township, to the monks of St. Mary's Abbey, York. (Garnett 2013)
This site is a scheduled monument protected by law
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SD610789 |
| Latitude | 54.2049903869629 |
| Longitude | -2.59815001487732 |
| Eastings | 361080 |
| Northings | 478980 |
