Ravenstone Moat

Has been described as a Questionable Timber Castle (Motte)

There are no visible remains

NameRavenstone Moat
Alternative Names
Historic CountryWestmorland
Modern AuthorityCumbria
1974 AuthorityCumbria
Civil ParishRavenstonedale

Moated site or motte with gate. Since the manor was in the hands of absentee monastic landlords from the reign of Henry II, it seems that this site represents the pre-1150 manor house. (PastScape ref. Perriam and Robinson)

Ravenstone Moat

NY 719 045

Motte.

Higham 1976: Plan. Moated with gate '... hitherto unrecorded... since the manor was in the hands of absentee monastic landlords from the reign of Henry II, it seems that this site represents the pre-1150 manor house...'

No excavtion report found (Perriam and Robinson 1998)

Gatehouse Comments

Gatehouse feels it is questionable (i.e. doubtful) that this was the site of a motte castle. It is clearly a manorial centre of some sort but the earthworks pictured by Matthew Emmott and visible of the aerial photo look like fishponds, rather than a moat. The site needs proper investigation by a field archaeologist. If these are fishponds then they will date to after 1150 although the manorial site will have an earlier origin. Possibly Perriam and Robinson were writing about some other earthworks nearby (considerable amounts of a park pale survive to the north and some tumuli are also marked) which may now be lost to the major road embanking.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY719045
Latitude54.4347305297852
Longitude-2.43407011032104
Eastings371900
Northings504500
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink
Photograph by Matthew Emmott. All rights reservedView full Sized Image
Photograph by Matthew Emmott. All rights reservedView full Sized Image
Photograph by Matthew Emmott. All rights reservedView full Sized Image

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.

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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. 304

Journals

  • Higham, N., 1976, 'An Early Medieval Site at Coldbeck, Ravenstonedale' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 76 p. 214-15 online copy