England · Partial ruin
Baile Hill
Baile Hill is the surviving earth mound (motte) of the medieval fortification known as the Old Baile in the Bishophill area of York, England. It is the only visible remnant of a motte-and-bailey castle built shortly after the Norman Conquest and now stands as a grassy, tree-covered mound at the junction of Baile Hill Terrace and Cromwell Road.
Its prime
1068
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1068
What Baile Hill looked like in its prime.
A single, man-made conical earth motte roughly 12 m high and about 180 ft in diameter, with a flattened summit where a wooden structure once stood; the slope is grass-covered and now planted with mature trees. The motte was ringed by a wide, excavated ditch and approached by a flight of steps. To the north-west lay a rectangular bailey defined by an earthen rampart and an outer ditch. No stone curtain walls or masonry keep are visible on the site.
Its story
The story of Baile Hill.
Two Castles for the Conqueror, 1068-1069
York fell to William the Conqueror in 1068, and he built a castle on the south side of the city, close to the River Ouse. A rebellion the following year brought a second castle on the opposite bank. There is no clear evidence which of the two came first, though the one on the site of the later York Castle, east of the river, is generally thought the elder, with the Old Baile on the west side following it.
Like its counterpart across the water, the Old Baile was a motte-and-bailey. The motte stood about 40 feet (12 m) high and 180 feet (66 m) across, ringed by a large ditch, with a flight of steps climbing to a wooden structure at the top that was itself fenced in timber. The rectangular bailey lay to the north-west, behind an earth rampart and an outer ditch.
The Archbishop's Ground, 13th Century to c. 1340
The castle is believed not to have been in regular use for long. By the 13th century the Old Baile was in the hands of the Archbishop of York, and in 1322 Archbishop Melton agreed to defend it in time of war. By about 1340 part of the city wall had been carried along the south-east and south-west sides of the site, taking in the ramparts and ditch already there.
Grazing, Archery and the Royalist Guns of 1644
Those defences were rarely called on. The Old Baile was used mainly for grazing and recreation, archery above all in the medieval period. The one notable exception came at the siege of York in 1644, during the Civil War, when Baile Hill served as a royalist gun emplacement.
Houses built in the 1880s cover the rest of the Old Baile, and the mound is the only remaining feature of the fortification. Two slight dips in the city wall rampart, one beside Baile Hill and the other close to Victoria Bar, mark where its ditch ran.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1068.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Baile Hill, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Landmarks within reach of Baile Hill.
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