Whorlton Castle Whorlton Castle is a ruined medieval castle situated near the abandoned village of Whorlton in North Yorkshire , England . It was built in the early 12th century as a Norman motte - and - bailey associated with the nearby settlement . The castle is an unusual example of a motte and bailey that remained in use throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period . Built to overlook an important road on the western edge of the North York Moors , the castle fell into ruin as early as the mid - 14th century . The site nonetheless continued to be inhabited until at least the early 17th century . Little now remains of the castle itself , other than the remnants of some cellars or undercrofts . The ruined shell of a 14th - century gatehouse still survives , albeit in fairly poor condition . It is a listed building and is privately owned but can be visited by the public . History . The castle was established in the early 12th century at the edge of Castle Bank , a ridge between the villages of Faceby and Swainby , overlooking a small valley through which the road between Thirsk and Stokesley runs . In the 13th century it was referred to variously as Hwernelton or Potto Castle ( the village of Potto is part of the same parish ) . At the time of the " Domesday Book " , Whorlton was recorded as belonging to Robert , Count of Mortain , the half - brother of William the Conqueror . It subsequently passed to the de Meynell family , who founded the castle . It is unclear when exactly the castle was built , but in its first phase it would have consisted of a wooden fortress on a roughly square motte measuring some by . The motte was surrounded by a dry ditch up to wide by deep , with an outer bank standing up to high . Most of the ditch is still extant but its southeast quadrant has been obliterated by a modern road . It would have adjoined a fortified enclosure that included the village and church . The castle fell into disrepair or was dismantled during the first part of the 14th century ; an account of 1343 describes it as being a ruin . In the mid - 14th century it passed by marriage to John , Lord Darcy of Knaith , who had close associations with the royal court . Darcy carried out substantial changes to the castle and levelled the motte to provide a base for a new keep with a fortified gatehouse built a short distance to the east . It is not clear whether there was a curtain wall – there is no evidence of one on the groud – but the castle would have been extremely hard to defend without one . The lack of evidence of a curtain wall may simply be the result of centuries of stone - robbing . Whorlton Castle remained in the hands of the Darcys until 1418 , when the death of Philip Darcy resulted in Whorlton being inherited by his daughter Elizabeth , who was married to Sir James Strangways . The Strangways held on to the castle until a dispute between heirs in 1541 led to it becoming a possession of the Crown . King Henry VII granted the castle and estate to Matthew , Earl of Lennox , whose eldest son was Henry Stuart , Lord Darnley . The Countess of Lennox wrote to Mary , Queen of Scots in the autum of 1561 , possibly from Whorlton Castle , to propose a marriage between Mary and Darnley . Although local tradition claims that the castle was where their marriage contract was signed in 1565 , this is erroneous ; the contract was actually signed at Stirling . The castle eventually returned to the possession of the Crown but fell into disrepair and by 1600 the building was described as " old and ruinous " . At some point in the late 16th or early 17th century , a house was built by the Lennox family adjoining the northwest end of the gatehouse and then - substantial ruins of the castle keep . The house was sketched in 1725 by Samuel Buck and is depicted as a large two - storied building with gabled dormer windows set into a steeply pitched roof . No trace of the house ' s structure now remains , though its roofline is still visible on the north side of the gatehouse . The manor was given to Edward Bruce ( later Lord Bruce of Kinloss ) in 1603 and the title of Lord Bruce of Whorlton was bestowed on his younger son Thomas in 1641 . Thomas ' s son Robert became the first Earl of Ailesbury in 1664 . By the early 19th century the ruins of the castle ' s keep had largely disappeared , as depicted in a lithograph made at this time . In 1875 a large quantity of the castle ' s stonework was removed to build Swainby ' s village church . The Ailesbury family retained the castle and manor until the late 19th century , when they were sold to James Emerson of Easby Hall . The castle is currently privately owned , having been bought by Osbert Peake , 1st Viscount Ingleby in the mid - 20th century as part of a shooting estate . It acquired listed status in 1928 and is a Grade I listed site . The gatehouse received structural repairs from the Ministry of Works in the 1960s but has otherwise largely been left open to the elements . Description of buildings and surroundings . The mid - 14th century gatehouse is the main surviving relic of Whorlton Castle . It is now a roofless and floorless shell , three storeys high , constructed from sandstone ashlar and built on a rectangular plan with a length and breadth of by . The height of the surviving walls varies between to about The walls vary in thickness between to . None of the interior walls or floors have survived . Two large segment - arched entrances are present on either side of the gatehouse , flanked by cross - windows . Each entrance is approximately wide by high . Above the east ( main ) entrance is a row of three carved shields in cusped panels . The shields present the arms of Darcy ( centre ) flanked by Meynell ( right ) and Gray ( left ) , the latter reflecting the marriage of Philip Darcy to Elizabeth Gray in the late 14th century . Above the shields is a further single shield that shows the arms of Darcy and Meynell impaled , reflecting the original marriage that united the families and brought the castle into the hands of the Darcys . The entrances would originally have been blocked by portcullis es made of wood or metal that could be raised or lowered by winches set into the gatehouse walls . The grooves for the portcullises are still visible today . Those passing through the entrances would have crossed through a vaulted central passage , of which some elements can still be seen . On either side were a number of large rooms with smaller mural chambers ( small rooms set within the walls ) – probably guardrooms – and a great hall would have occupied the entire top floor . The remains of fireplaces are still visible on the ground and first floors . A vice or spiral staircase enclosed by a tower projecting out from the northwest wall gave access to the upper floors . It could not be accessed from within the ground floor of the gatehouse but was accessed from a round - headed doorway set into the north - west wall . The staircase can still be followed up to the remnants of the first floor , though the actual flooring is no longer present . On the outside of the gatehouse ' s north - west wall , the roofline of a now - vanished building can still be seen . The castle ' s keep itself was situated approximately further west at the other end of the bailey . The only elements of it now remaining are fragments of vaulted cellars or undercrofts , the largest of which measures some by . They are thought to be of Norman origin and as such may represent the oldest extant remains on the site . It was recorded in the mid - 19th century that the local farmer used the castle cellars as pig sties . The cellars are now overgrown and partly infilled with debris . A large area of the surrounding landscape is also associated with the castle . Much of the land was cultivated during the Middle Ages and traces of ploughing are still visible . The area immediately adjoining the castle was landscaped during the late medieval period , when ornamental gardens were built in two rectangular enclosures a short way to the east of the bailey . Each was some by and was surrounded by earthen banks about high . To the east of the gardens was an extended rectangular pond long , wide and up to deep . It has been suggested that it might have been a fish pond , but its size makes this possibility an uncertain one . A deer park was laid out to the south of the castle where , it is said , Edward II once hunted . The landscape and the site of the deserted village of Whorlton are included with the castle as part of a scheduled ancient monument . Conservation plans . The castle gatehouse is in poor condition and has been added to English Heritage ' s Heritage at Risk register . The building has repeatedly been vandalised and is suffering the effects of the weather . The site is within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park , and the National Park Authority , English Heritage and the site owner have collaborated to develop a plan to conserve the site . A report produced for the park authority in 2005 examined several options , including retaining the building as ruins but improving security by employing a custodian , converting the gatehouse into a liveable property for use as a house or holiday home , or establishing a local community group to help manage and maintain the site . The option of converting the gatehouse was recommended . The report concluded that " retention of the status quo is not felt to be an acceptable option , due to continuing damage through vandalism to the historic fabric and archaeology , together with the impaired public enjoyment and the uneconomic nature of future repairs and maintenance to the site . " English Heritage part - funded a feasibility study to assess the prospects of turning the gatehouse into a home .