Pendragon Castle is a ruined castle in Mallerstang, Cumbria, England. Probably first established as a timber and earth ringwork in the 11th century, a stone keep was added in the late 12th century. The castle was owned by the Clifford family for most of its history, and Lady Anne Clifford restored the castle in the 17th century, adding a new range of buildings.
After Anne’s death, Pendragon Castle was abandoned and fell into ruin. Much of the keep has collapsed and the 17th century additions have been lost.
History
Pendragon Castle was probably established in the 11th century, following the Norman conquest of England. It guarded a route along the Eden River valley through the Pennine mountains, where the dale of Mallerstang met the river. The castle was probably originally a ringwork design, with timber defences. It came under the control of the Vipont, later Vieuxpont, family, powerful landowners across the region, who probably constructed a stone keep at the castle in the late 12th century.
Robert de Clifford, the first Baron Clifford, inherited half the the Vieuxpont family estates in 1286, including Pendragon Castle, which then remained in the Clifford family for several centuries. Robert may have carried out work to improve the fortification around 1300. Local tradition states that Idonea de Clifford, Robert’s daughter, resided at the castle, entertaining Baliol, King of the Scots, there in in 1333, but that it was burnt by a Scots army in 1341, before being repaired by Roger de Clifford, the fifth baron, in the 1360s.
In 1605, Lady Anne Clifford became the Baroness Clifford on the death of her father, and, after a long legal struggle, she won the right to possession of the Clifford family estates in 1649. Anne usually lived at Appleby Castle, but she had long had ambitions to restore Pendragon Castle – as a child, she had hoped to convert it into a library – and between 1660 and 1662 she set about renovating the keep, building a new enclosing wall, gates, stables and service buildings, and erecting a new bridge across the Eden River to improve access to it.
On Anne’s death, Thomas Tufton, the Earl of Thanet, inherited the barony and dismantled much of the castle around 1685. The property remained more or less intact in 1736, but soon fell into decline; much of the keep had collapsed by 1773. By the turn of the 20th century, the castle was ruinous.
The castle’s owner, Raven Frankland, and the Ministry of Works carried out limited restoration work in the 1960s and 1970s, and the castle was archaeologically surveyed in 1991. The castle is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.
Architecture
Pendragon Castle is located on a spur above the River Eden. The main part of the castle is a earth ringwork, approximately 54 m (177 ft) across, protected by a ditch up to 18 m (59 ft) across and 4.8 m (15 ft) deep, and originally entered from the eastern side, with a later causeway added on the north-western side.
Inside the earthwork are the remains of the square keep, constructed from local rubble and dressed stone, approximately 19.5 m (64 ft) across externally with 2.5 m (8 ft) thick walls. Originally much taller, it now only survives to a height of up to 8 m (26 ft) and is in poor condition, surrounded by fallen masonry, although the vaulted chambers in each corner are still intact. A garderobe tower was added onto the south-west corner of the keep, possibly in the 14th century.
North-west of the ringwork are the foundations of a range erected by Anne Clifford in the 17th century, stretching approximately 57 m by 8.5 m (187 ft by 26 ft) along the river, and originally comprising at least 5 different buildings. There are the remains of a landscaped pond north-east of the castle, and a viewing platform on the other side of the river, both dating to the 17th century.
Bibliography
- Anonymous. (1908). “Pendragon Castle”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Volume 3, pp. 258-265.
- Binney, Christopher, Jason Brown, Sonia Ely, James Quartermaine and Jason Wood. (1995). “Survey data enhancement and interpretive works for the recording and conservation of Pendragon Castle” in Wilcock, J.D. and K. Lockyear (eds) Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Oxford, UK: BAR. ISBN 9780860547747.
- Curwen, John F. (1932). The Later Records Relating To North Westmorland Or the Barony of Appleby. Kendal, UK: Titus Wilson and Son.
- McIntire, W.T. (1933). “Proceedings”, in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Volume 33 pp. 298-299.
- Royal Commission for Historical Monuments in England. (1936). An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland. London, UK: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
- Taylor, M.W. (1892). Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland. Kendal, UK: T. Wilson.
- Wood, Jason. (1992-1993). “Six Northern Castles – A review of recent work undertaken by the Lancaster University Archaeological Unit”, in Castle Studies Group Newsletter Number 6 pp. 18-21.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page include those drawn from the Geograph website, as of 24 December 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Pendragon Castle“, author Maigheach-gheal, released under CC BY-SA 2.0; “Current entrance to Pendragon Castle“, author Christine Johnson, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.