England · Restored
Dilston Castle
Dilston Castle is a three-storey medieval tower house at Dilston in the parish of Corbridge, Northumberland, with an adjacent private chapel; both are scheduled monuments and Grade I listed. The surviving tower dates to the 15th century and was incorporated into later manor works; the larger house was later demolished, leaving the tower and chapel as the principal standing structures.
Its prime
1622
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1622
What Dilston Castle looked like in its prime.
A rectangular three-storey ashlar tower of warm yellow-buff sandstone with a horizontal, crenellated parapet and a slightly taller square projecting corner block; narrow vertical mullioned windows punctuate each storey in a regular pattern. A lower, attached stone chapel adjoins one side. The tower rises from a clipped grass lawn with mature trees close by; masonry shows coursed squared blocks and occasional larger quoins, roofline dominated by the battlemented top.
Its story
The story of Dilston Castle.
The three-storey tower at Dilston, in the parish of Corbridge, Northumberland, was built by Sir William Claxton in the 15th century on the site of an earlier pele tower. In 1621 the castle was acquired by the Radclyffe family through the marriage of Edward Radclyffe to the Claxton heiress; Francis Radclyffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater, was a Royalist in the Civil War whose estates were sequestrated by the Commonwealth and reverted to the family at the 1660 Restoration.
The 3rd Earl, James Radclyffe, son of Lady Mary Tudor and so an illegitimate grandchild of Charles II, was attainted in 1716. Because he held only a life interest under his 1712 marriage settlement, the estates did not pass to the Crown but to his two-year-old son John, who died aged 18 in 1731; they might then have gone to the earl's uncle Charles Radclyffe, living abroad, but he too had been attainted in 1716.
The larger house that grew up around the medieval tower was later demolished, leaving the 15th-century tower and its attendant private chapel as the principal standing structures; both are scheduled monuments and Grade I listed buildings.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1622.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Dilston Castle, including 3 interiors: chapel interior, tower stairwell and stairhead, jacobean range interior with cobbled floors. 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 Dilston Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Dilston Castle.
The families that held Dilston Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Claxton
Sir William Claxton built the 15th-century tower on the site of an earlier pele; the Claxton heiress carried the castle to the Radclyffes by marriage in 1621.
Radclyffe
Seat of the Radclyffe Earls of Derwentwater from 1621 until the attainders of 1716.
Nearby
