Piel Castle

There may have been an earlier fortification on Piel Island in the 12th century, possibly raised by the monks of Furness Abbey in the reign of King Stephen, but the evidence is uncertain. The documented castle was begun around 1327 by John Cockerham, Abbot of Furness Abbey, after Edward III granted the abbey a licence to crenellate. It was built to oversee trade through Piel Harbour and to defend the coast following Scottish raids on the abbey's lands in 1316 and 1322, raised in stone gathered from the local beach with finer red ashlar imported from the mainland for the doorways and windows. The architectural historian Anthony Emery has argued the castle went up in three phases: first an unfortified keep intended as a summer residence for the Abbot, then an inner bailey wall added as the Scottish threat grew, and finally an outer bailey wall.

In 1408 Abbot John Bolton judged the cost of maintaining the castle excessive and began pulling down its defences, but Henry IV stopped him; a period of rebuilding followed around 1429. The abbey also used the castle for smuggling, and merchants in English-controlled Calais complained that wool was being illegally trafficked through it outside the town's legal monopoly on the wool trade.

In 1487 the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel landed on Piel Island, sought support from potential local backers and held court in the castle before marching inland to defeat at the Battle of Stoke Field. By 1534 the castle had fallen into ruin, described in a contemporary report as "sore decayed", and when Furness Abbey was dissolved in 1537 the castle passed to the Crown.

After 1660 the castle was granted to the Duke of Albemarle, and by the late 18th century, with the island by then used as a base for maritime pilots, it belonged to the Dukes of Buccleuch. Sea erosion began causing significant damage in the early 19th century, collapsing one side of the keep. Walter Scott, Duke of Buccleuch, bought the rest of the island and carried out an extensive and expensive restoration between 1877 and 1878, replacing damaged ashlar, protecting the wall-tops and building outworks against further sea erosion — work that destroyed most surviving traces of the castle's medieval occupation.

When John Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch, decided to sell the island in 1919, the local mayor, Alfred Barrow, intervened, and in 1920 the castle and island were instead given to the town of Barrow-in-Furness as a memorial to those who died in the First World War. The site passed into central government care in 1973 and is now managed by English Heritage. An archaeological survey and excavation commissioned by English Heritage and led by Rachel Newman of Lancaster University took place in 1983–84; the findings led to a further programme of restoration, completed in 1991. The castle is a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.

By 2022 much of the low-lying island had been lost to the sea, and the keep itself was at risk of destruction from coastal erosion worsened by climate change. That September, English Heritage launched a fundraising campaign to protect and strengthen Piel Castle alongside five other at-risk castles.