Description
Appleby occupies a defensive position in a loop of the River Eden, making its position somewhat like Durham 40 miles away, Warkworth 65 miles away, Roxburgh 70 miles away and Shrewsbury 150 miles away on the Welsh borders.  At Appleby the loop of the river is wide with the neck being 1,100' across at its narrowest, but 1,600' where the castle is, further up the neck.  The castle earthworks themselves only cover some 700' of that 1,600' gap, the rest supposedly covered by the Doomgate Syke, a muddy stream.  At Durham the neck is only 700' wide and the castle covers some 400' of that.  At Warkworth the neck is nearly 700' across, but the castle has its bailey projecting out of the neck, rather than across it.  At Roxburgh the neck is some only a little over 400' across while there is no motte, merely a ridge end site running into the neck and about 200' across.  At Shrewsbury the gap is 800' while the castle covers 400'.  In all 3 cases the castles cover about 50% of the river neck.

Appleby would appear to be a pre-Norman settlement with its parish church on the north-east side of the River Eden centred on St Michael's church.  When the Normans arrived they founded a new linear borough in the loop of the river, based on the twin pillars of St Lawrence's church towards the head of the river loop and the castle to the south, half blocking the river neck.  Presumably this was the work of Ivo Taillebois (d.1094/7), the castle being planted on a slight rise of ground which is claimed to be the site of a Roman station of some description, although the castle stands some 2/3 of a mile south of the Roman road from Brough to Brougham.  In 1967 a square Roman well was uncovered in the east range basement, though whether this was part of a settlement or fort is debatable.

Earthworks
The main defence of Appleby castle was initially a ringwork about 190' in internal diameter, the eastern portion of its ditch supposedly being infilled by the Lady Anne Clifford (d.1676).  This ward was attached to the river bluff to the east by a large rectangular bailey approximately 220' east to west by 160' north to south.  The whole was protected by a ditch up to 30' deep from the berm and which surrounded the site apart from to the east where the river line provided the defence.  The northern front of the castle was protected by 2 further outworks, all protected by ditches up to 15' deep that were probably originally water filled moats.  To the north-east lay an eye shaped enclosure, or middle ward, which connected directly to the outer ward lying north-west of the ringwork.  There was a further raised glacis protecting the south side of the outer ward, ringwork and inner ward.

The Keep
Lying roughly centrally in the ringwork, the keep, in modern times called Caesar's Tower, stands 45' square with 4 pilaster corner buttresses and walls about 7' thick.  In its current form it is about 80' high.  The original work had 3 stories and its parapet is now fossilised under a later upper storey.  In 1651-53, to stop the collapse of the structure, Lady Anne had a crosswall added to increase the structural stability.  Even so several large cracks can be seen in the ashlar walls.  These themselves consist of the smaller, squarish blocks that appear in several Northern castles.

The basement and first floor are predominantly built of red sandstone ashlar with some grey sandstone.  Above the chamfered first floor offset the work becomes mainly grey ashlar with some red.  Despite this, the similarity of the rectangular twin windows set within Romanesque arches suggests that the whole is of one build, or the design was standardised at a later date.  The positioning of the loops would indicate that the tower basement has been partially buried after its construction.  Certainly there is now no trace of a batter which would normally be expected to be visible at the base of any tower.

The basement has 2 narrow, Romanesque double splayed loops equidistantly set in the north and south walls, although the western loop in the north wall has been destroyed to make way for a doorway.  The west wall is blind, but in the east wall are 2 openings.  That to the north would appear to have been a loop, but it has been much altered.  To the south is what looks like an original, if heightened entrance door.  Like the windows in the floors above, externally it has a fine Romanesque arch.  All these features appear to be original.  At this level a spiral stair begins in the south-east buttress, leaving very thin walls to the turret.

The first floor is entered from the east via a narrow doorway some 6' above the current ground level.  This has been lowered in height as can be seen from the infilling above the late arch.  There is no trace of a forebuilding and although the arch has been replaced the door jambs appear original.  Against this is the fact that this doorway does not have a recessed Romanesque arch like the windows or the ground floor doorway.  Possibly this is an insertion.  As this doorway is in place where a window should have been - they are set in pairs in all the other walls of this floor and in all the walls on the floor above - it again seems possible that this doorway is a later insertion, although the arch of the door is several feet beneath where it should be if there had been a window here earlier. 

The keep windows in the first and second floors all have 2, apparently original, twin rectangular windows set in Romanesque external wall recesses.  This style is unique to Appleby, although some windows in the keep at Scarborough show similar external wall recesses, but with different style windows within.  The spiral stair from the basement exists into this room via a short mural passage.  This corner and that of the south-west corner are chamfered off to allow more space for the two vices set within.  Why there are 2 stairways in this keep is unknown, for this is unusual for such a small keep, although they do turn in different directions.  Perhaps one stair was planned for counterattack if the lower floor fell to an attacker, but this would have been a lot of effort for a small keep.  The south-western vice is accessed via the embrasure of the westernmost of the south wall windows and a garderobe is set in the north-east buttress.

The second floor appears similar to the first, but with a full suite of 8 identical window embrasures, with none of the windows offset, which occurs in the floor below.  These 3 floors marked the extent of the accommodation within the original tower, although the walls were carried up for some distance to cover the original twin pent roof, of which some creasings remain in the more modern floors above.  Originally there were no fireplaces, but these have been added into the seventeenth century crosswall.  Once more the southern corners of the room have been chamfered off to give more room for the vices, but here both stairs exit into the window embrasures in the east and west walls.  Externally the vices are lit by Romanesque lancet windows which cease before the original battlements are reached.

The keep is an unusual affair, but bears some resemblance to the tower-keeps at Brougham, Carlisle 65 miles away and and Helmsley.  It is possible, judging from the splayed basement windows and the apparently original ground floor entrance, that the tower was initially a single floor hall which was then extended upwards.  A similar occurrence happened with the conversion of an early hall into a keep at Portchester castle.  The possibility of the keep being of 3 separate building stages is enhanced by the chamfered offset above the first floor marking a possible change in style.  The window recesses above are slightly taller and the stone has more grey than red.  Regardless of whether the first tower consisted of 2 or 3 floors originally, at some point in the middle ages the keep was increased in height and later still the upper stage was divided into more unlit rooms, although 4 small rectangular windows were inserted, probably in the seventeenth century, to north and south.  The 2 spiral staircases in the 2 southern buttresses rise to battlement height, exiting from shoulder-headed turret doorways which suggest a date of 1250-1350 for the heightening of the keep and the building of the 4 garrets.  The current looped merlons are probably seventeenth century.

The Inner Ward
The inner enceinte forms an irregular polygon around the keep.  This consists of a wall about 8' thick having a diameter of some 190' standing as it does atop the ringwork.  Most of this wall is now gone, but the section from the fifteenth century northern buttress survives to the west turret as an ashlar wall topped with later seventeenth century work.  After this the wall is rubble work, which is possibly a seventeenth century rebuild.  Another fragment exists to the south-east where it continues eastwards as the southern curtain of the outer ward.  The section of wall between these 2 original pieces was probably replaced by Lady Anne Clifford who is also claimed to have destroyed the eastern section and filled in the ringwork ditch on this front.  Presumably there was once a gateway here too, although it should be noted that Clitheroe has a somewhat similar layout, but the ‘inner ward' section appears never to have been more than 3/4 enclosed just like Appleby is now.

The Outer Ward
The outer ward contains some more fragments of early castle, the bulk of which consists of elements of the much damaged south curtain wall.  The east end of this was much altered, both in the fifteenth century and by the Lady Anne in the seventeenth, and would suggest the original enceinte covered much the same ground as today.  The south curtain contains much ashlar facing similar to that found in the north-western section of the inner ward, although there is much rubble patching and replacement.  A plan of 1754 had 2 D shaped towers on this front, their positions still being marked by doorways in the curtain and some slight remains of the central, westernmost one.  The more eastern tower may be fantastical as the doorway here appears later and there are no further traces of stonework, unlike at the site of the central tower which appears to have had a diameter of some 22'.  East of the possibly fantastical tower was an internal building built against the curtain.  Some corbels and a window remain of this.

The only other fragment of early work in the outer ward would seem to be the postern and a fragment of associated walling to the north.  The postern consists of 2 slight buttresses thrusting beyond the line of the curtain and allowing a portcullis with Romanesque arch to be positioned before the main Romanesque gateway.  The masonry is a rubble build tending towards ashlar, while the associated ashlar to the north consists of more smaller, squarer blocks, all made of red sandstone.  The curtain also has a single chamfered offset which is lacking on the postern.  Possibly they are of 2 different builds, with the gate being younger than the curtain.

There was probably once a main gatehouse centrally in the north curtain wall where a causeway now crosses the ditch.  A great gatehouse was mentioned in 1422, but was probably destroyed in the seventeenth century.  Half way between the gatehouse and the rectangular fifteenth century north-east tower stands a much altered D shaped tower.  This is 28' in diameter, was ashlar faced and had a sloping plinth.  The small, blocked crossbow loop to the east would suggest a late twelfth or early thirteenth century date.  Presumably both (or all 3) D shaped towers were part of the same construction phase.

The Main Block
In the fifteenth century the east curtain was remodelled into an L shaped block set between 2 square towers.  Possibly this was the work of Thomas Clifford (d.1455), but the idea that it was built in 1454 seems unsupported by documentary evidence.  This residence was rebuilt by Lady Anne in 1651-3 and then largely rebuilt again in 1686-88 as well as in 1695 with materials being brought from Brough and Brougham castles.  The block was once again refurbished in the nineteenth century.

Copyright©2021 Paul Martin Remfry

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