Dacre Castle

The Dacre family had risen in prominence in Cumberland during the 12th and early 13th centuries, and in 1307 William Dacre acquired a licence to crenellate the property of Dunmallogt, quite close to the ground on which Dacre Castle would later stand. His son Ralph married Margaret Multon in 1317 and became extremely wealthy as a result, and in 1335 he received permission to found Naworth Castle. It was probably Margaret who built Dacre Castle, at some point between Ralph's death in 1339 and 1354, with the intention of creating a fortified home. Many tower houses went up across the region in the same period in response to the threat of Scottish raids and invasion, and Dacre was raised against that background: a square block of local sandstone 66 feet tall, crenellated, with four turrets and a three-sided moat. An older building may already have stood on the site, possibly moated, but that is uncertain.

After Margaret's death the castle continued in Dacre hands, and stayed there until the death of Randal Dacre in 1634, when it passed briefly to the Crown. By 1675 it had become derelict. The then Lord Dacre, Thomas Lennard, restored it, and a new entrance was constructed and square 17th-century windows installed. After Lennard's death in 1715 the castle was sold to Edward Hassell.

The condition of the castle deteriorated again in the 18th century, becoming overgrown and dilapidated, and by the 19th century the Hassell family were using it as a farmhouse. In 1961 Anthony and Bunty Kinsman leased it for 22 years at a cost of £1,000. Making it habitable required extensive structural repairs and renovations, which the Kinsmans undertook over the following two years at a cost of £8,596. The Ministry of Works provided some financial support in exchange for the castle being opened to the public for the next fifteen years. The new oak doors were fitted with iron hinges that had originally been used at nearby Lowther Castle.

The renovations of the 1960s uncovered a possible priest hole behind the fireplace of the large second-floor chamber, roughly 7 feet by 4; it was re-sealed rather than restored, to avoid the cost of the work. That chamber is traditionally called the "Room of the Three Kings", after the legend described by William of Malmesbury. In 1967 Princess Sharada Shah, daughter of King Mahendra of Nepal, visited the castle as part of an official trip to the United Kingdom. In the 21st century Dacre is owned by the Hassell-McCosh family and rented out as a private home, protected as a grade I listed building since July 1957.