Neville Castle, 430m north west of the parish church

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the buried and standing remains of a late medieval hunting lodge known as Neville Castle, located on the north side of Kirkbymoorside. Neville Castle is believed to have replaced the moated manor house on Vivier's Hill, 500m to the south east, as the main seat of the manor of Kirkbymoorside which was held by the Neville family from the beginning of the 15th century until 1569, when it was forfeited to the Crown following the rebellion of Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. The Nevilles were an important and influential family throughout this period. Their numbers included Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker for his role in the Wars of the Roses, and Charles Neville, who rebelled in support of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1570 Neville Castle was described as a 16th century hunting lodge set in a park with a boundary circuit 2.5 miles (3.75 km) in length. Two small areas of the monument were excavated in advance of building work over several seasons in the early 1960s and in 1974. These excavations uncovered a complex sequence of buildings and modifications to buildings on the site, starting with a timber cruck framed hall which was occupied until about the end of the 15th century, when it was replaced by a larger, more grandiose set of stone buildings arranged around a courtyard. Most of the remains of Neville Castle survive as buried deposits, but there are at least four sections of exposed masonry. The largest is the wall fragment standing to the west of the path that leads from the end of Castlegate lane along the side of Manor Vale. This is of rough rubble stonework standing some 6m high, 1m thick and 4m long. It retains part of a buttress at the north end of its west face along with a number of putlog holes (sockets

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.