England · Ruin
Arnside Tower
Arnside Tower is a late-medieval limestone tower house (pele tower) near Arnside in Cumbria. Built in the second half of the 15th century, it originally stood as a five-storey tower with an attached wing of equal height; today it survives as a ruin and is a Scheduled Monument and Grade II* listed building.
Its prime
1500
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1500
What Arnside Tower looked like in its prime.
A rectangular five-storey limestone tower house with an attached wing of equal height, built of rough grey limestone rubble; walls rise vertically with regular rows of small rectangular and slit openings, the tower measuring roughly 50 by 34 feet in plan. In its prime the full-height walls stood unbroken to their original storeys, window openings aligned in tiers, the two-block composition (tower plus side-wing) forming a compact, blocky silhouette on a low grassy knoll surrounded by scattered rocks and scrub.
Its story
The story of Arnside Tower.
Built Against the Border Reivers
Arnside Tower was built in the second half of the 15th century, one of the tower houses raised throughout the border regions of northern England and southern Scotland because of the threat posed by the Border Reivers. It was given an adjacent wing of equal height, a plan common in Scotland but rare among English tower houses, and the historian Anthony Emery suggests the design may have been influenced by that at Ashby de la Zouch Castle, rebuilt in 1464 by Lord Hastings.
The Fire of 1602 and the Last Occupants
The tower suffered a serious fire in 1602 but was repaired and remained in use. How long it was used is told two ways: Emery holds that the tower was in use until the end of the 17th century, while the historian Roy Palmer records William Coward and his sister Agnes Wheeler living there at the end of the 18th.
Collapse, Listing and Private Ownership
One of the tower's walls collapsed around 1900. It was listed at Grade II* on 12 February 1962 and is also a scheduled monument, but in 2014 English Heritage judged its condition very bad and called for urgent works. The ruin is privately owned; the local tourist board directs visitors to the public footpath alongside.
Step inside
4 places to explore in 1500.
The record describes 4 distinct spots at Arnside Tower, including 2 interiors: ground-floor chamber interior, upper-storey window view. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Arnside Tower with AI to explore it.
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