Ruins of Simonburn Castle, Simonburn. Photo by Peter Ryder.

[NY 8626 7374] Simonburn Castle (Remains of). (1)

The tower at Simonburn is first mentioned in 1415, but the earliest masonry is 13th century. It was built on an unfinished motte and part of a bailey ditch can still be seen. (2)

Scheduled. (3)

The tower is now reduced to a grass covered mound of rubble, except for the east wall which is 6m high. There is no sign of a bailey ditch, but a natural hollow, or hollow way, to the south east may have been mistaken for it. 1/2500 survey revised. (4)

Simonburn Castle or Tower and barmkin. Site on a high spur between two streams. May be part of motte and bailey castle. Ruined vault of a tower remains, has a turret which projected c.8ft from the north-west face. The tower was once repaired as an eyecatcher or park ornament. (5)

Simonburn Castle, Grade II. Ruin of a tower house. 13th century partly reconstructed in 1766 as an eyecatcher from Nunwick Hall. Square plan. Dressed stone facing, rubble core. Fragmentary remains on tree-covered mound. Semi-circular barrel-vaulted ground floor. East wall best preserved, stands 4m high in centre. (6)

NY 8626 7373. Simonburn Castle tower house. Scheduled RSM No 21047.
Though repaired in the 18th century and having lost its upper storeys through collapse, the remains of an original solitary tower house of 13th century date remain on the site. The tower, built of small squared ashlar blocks, is roughly 10.5m square. Only the ground floor basement stands today, covered by a plain semicircular barrel vault. Although the basement has become infilled with rubble and masonry from the collapsed upper storeys, a small window in the SE side is visible. There is a door in the NW wall giving access to a mural chamber which is thought to have housed the foot of a flight of stairs giving access to the upper storey. Also on the NW side are the remains of a square projecting turret. The remains of a stone wall rib indicate that the ground floor was covered by a plain vaulted roof. A door with a pointed arch opens from the turret giving rise to the suggestion that the turret served as an entrance porch to the main tower. The original 13th century tower fell into decay during the 16th century and was almost certainly in ruins by the end of that century. In the second half of the 18th century it was repaired by the Allgood family and the upper end of the NE wall was rebuilt. As late as 1940 this wall at least was still standing to a height of 1.8m. (7)

The tower measures 11m north-south by c.10.5m east-west; the latter measurement is estimated, since the external face of the west wall is no longer exposed. The east and the eastern halves of the north and south walls stand to c.4m high, but the western half of the tower is buried in a rubbly mound. Towards the east end of the north wall is a doorway with a chamfered two-centred arch, blocked by a bank of rubble obscuring whatever passage or lobby it opened into. Immediately west of the doorway a metre-thick wall runs northward from the tower for 5m; what appears to be a blocked segmental archway in this seems to be the wall-rib of a vault covering some sort of lobby in front of the doorway into the tower. This interpretation is complicated by the facts that the curve is intersected by what appears to be the splayed jamb of a window (?) contemporary with the wall, and that the wall seems to return eastward about 4m from the tower, whereas the curve of the vault would indicate a rather narrower lobby or passage. There are remains of a second and narrower wall closer to the tower, but this is clearly secondary; this may be a relic of some cottages referred to in the County History.
Whilst the original doorway is completely blocked by rubble, access to the vaulted basement of the tower is still possible (just). A hole produced by the collapse of the north west corner of the vault reveals short sections of the internal first floor wall faces of the north and west walls, along with a short length of a narrow channel (a drain?) parallel to the latter, with one cover slab.
The basement has a semicircular barrel vault. The rubble of the floor conceals the north end; in the south end wall are a narrow tapering loop and, just below the vault, a square opening; in the south corner some sort of shaft rises through the vault, but appears to be blocked. The County History refers to a doorway at the north west corner giving access to a mural chamber; this is now completely buried by debris.
This is an interesting tower; the apparent forebuilding or entrance lobby is unusual. The remains merit conservation. Despite the large volume of rubble and infill, a relatively small section of the
basement vault seems actually to have collapsed; repair of the vault might be the best means of consolidation.
In addition to its possible early origins, it seems likely that this was a tower accompanied by some other buildings, on a site that has seen little post-medieval disturbance. (8)

It is possible that a motte and bailey was built by Simon, half-brother of Prince Henry of Scotland, after 1138. The tower house was built by Henry Graham, being completed in 1291. The tower appears to have been abandoned after 1550, being ruinous in the 1670s. In 1766 the ruin was partly restored as a folly. (9a)

Listed by King. (9b)