Greenholme Motte and Bailey
Tebay
Cumbria
There is some doubt about this site being a motte and bailey castle....even an unfinished motte and bailey castle, as some sources suggest. Local documents tell of two castles built in the Tebay area, to stop marauding Scots from passing through the area and onto Lonsdale and Kentdale further South. Castle Howe near junction 38 of the M6 motorway is undoubtedly an early medieval motte and bailey castle....the remains of the motte, ditches, banks and an extensive bailey area are all clear evidence of this.
Tebay
Cumbria
There is some doubt about this site being a motte and bailey castle....even an unfinished motte and bailey castle, as some sources suggest. Local documents tell of two castles built in the Tebay area, to stop marauding Scots from passing through the area and onto Lonsdale and Kentdale further South. Castle Howe near junction 38 of the M6 motorway is undoubtedly an early medieval motte and bailey castle....the remains of the motte, ditches, banks and an extensive bailey area are all clear evidence of this.

Walking into the field behind the farm, it took a while before I could even make out this earthwork feature. The old course of Birk Beck can clearly be seen in the field, some 50 yards or so the South of the current water course. The remains of the fortification, if that is what they are, would therefore have been about 20 yards or so from the waters edge, much the same as Castle Howe's situation. The motte, or enclosure, has an internal area of some 23 metres by 9 metres, and rises no more than four feet or so above the surrounding area.


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