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Flamborough Castle

Flamborough Castle
East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Flamborough Castle's Danish Tower in 2010
Site information
TypeManor house
Open to
the public		Available to view from a public pathway
Location
Flamborough Castle is located in East Riding of Yorkshire
Flamborough Castle
Flamborough Castle
Shown within the East Riding of Yorkshire
Coordinates54°06′51″N 0°07′34″W / 54.114125°N 0.126081°W / 54.114125; -0.126081
Grid referencegrid reference TA226702
Site history
Built
  • c. 1090 (original structure)
  • 1351–52 (current structure)
Built byMarmaduke Constable
In use12 February 1352 – 1537
MaterialsChalk
Demolishedc. 1573

Flamborough Castle, also known as the Danish Tower,[1] is a Grade II listed Medieval manor house in Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire which has partial ruins existing today.[2]

History

[edit]

The first fortified manor house that existed on the site was built around 1090 by the Constable family,[3] and it is mentioned between 1180 and 1193 when a constabularius existed on the site.[4]

The surviving Farnborough Castle structure was built on the site of an oratory constructed in 1319. Construction began on 12 February 1352[5] by Marmaduke Constable (c. 1300 – 1378) after he obtained a licence to crenelate from King Edward III on 24 May 1351.[3][6] The main tower of the Castle was the Danish Tower,[1] and the building was in use by the Constable family until it was abandoned when Sir Robert Constable was executed on 6 July 1537,[3] causing his family to forfeit Flamborough Castle among thirty-four other manors to the King.[7] It was in ruins by c. 1540 until some repairs were carried out in 1543 but the building was largely demolished by c. 1573 when the kitchen was removed.[8][9]

Although the Constable family were able to regain their Flamborough estate from Queen Elizabeth I in 1582, they did not live there as it was in a state of ruin.[10] They sold the Castle in 1636 and the Strickland family purchased it in 1656. The ruins of Flamborough Castle were then in use as a cattle barn by 1798,[4] and was used as a cattle barn until at least 1892.[10] Stones from the castle were stolen over time to construct later buildings in Flamborough[11] with evidence of lime kilns being built on the site in the form of surviving earthworks.[8]

Flamborough Castle between 1900–20, before the north wall collapsed

The north wall collapsed no later than 1925,[12] and the vaulted chamber collapsed before 1971.[12]

Excavation

[edit]

The earthworks surrounding the castle were first excavated by J. R. Earnshaw in c. 1964,[13] and Flamborough Castle was excavated again and also partially repaired between 2017 and 2018.[10]

Description

[edit]

In 1537, John Leyland visited Flamborough Castle.[8] He mentioned that the building included a tower, a hall, a 'great parlour', a 'lord's parlour', a chapel, a court house, a mill house, and a great barn.[4]

Today, alongside the surrounding earthworks, three walls of the Danish Tower survive and they only stand to 4 metres (13 ft) tall.[1][2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Danish Tower, Flamborough". Gatehouse Gazetteer.
  2. ^ a b "Flamborough Castle: a fortified manor house". Historic England. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Flamborough Castle". Britain Express. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Flamborough Castle". CastleUK.net. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  5. ^ Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1907, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1350-54) Vol. 9 p. 75
  6. ^ Hugill, R. (1970) Castles and Peles of the English Border.
  7. ^ 'Constable of Flamborough', in J. Foster (comp.), Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, 3 volumes (W. Wilfred Head for the author, London 1874), II (recte III): North and East Riding, unnumbered sheet in alphabetical sequence (Internet Archive).
  8. ^ a b c Purdy, J. D. (1974) ‘Flamborough’. In Allison, K J (ed) A History of the County of York East Riding (=VCH) vol 2, 151-164
  9. ^ McDonagh, B. (2007) Manor Houses, Churches and Settlements: Historical Geographies of the Yorkshire Wolds before 1600. (University of Nottingham PhD thesis, available online at http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11632/1/439852.pdf)
  10. ^ a b c Ltd, Ed Dennison Archaeological Services (2018). Flamborough Castle, Tower Street, Flamborough, East Yorkshire: Archaeological Survey and Monitoring of 2017-18 Repairs (Report). Archaeology Data Service. pp. 1 pdf file. doi:10.5284/1054672.
  11. ^ "FLAMBOROUGH CASTLE". www.ecastles.net. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  12. ^ a b Brearley, F. (1971). A History of Flamborough, p. 183
  13. ^ Earnshaw, J. R. (1965). ‘Flamborough, E.R’. In Ramm, H G 1965 ‘Yorkshire Archaeological Register 1964’. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal vol 41, 315-337