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Scotney Castle

In the civil parish of Lamberhurst.
In the historic county of Sussex.
Modern Authority of Kent.
1974 county of Kent.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ68953525
Latitude 51.0907° Longitude 0.4121°

Scotney Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Remains of castle dating to 1377 and reduced to ruins c 1840; ruins of C17 house attached. Scotney Castle was situated on an island in a lake-like moat which was separated from the River Bewl to the south by a narrow embankment. Entrance to it was from the north by a drawbridge first to another island and then by a defended bridge connecting the two islands. The castle is similar in form to Bodiam Castle - a fortified house surrounded by a large moat. The old castle itself was pulled down in the Elizabethan period and an Elizabethan House was built on the site. This again has fallen into ruins, except for a small fragment which is lived in by the bailiff. Single surviving Medieval round tower has an Elizabethan dwelling house built onto it. Much of this is roofed and furnished, but it is not occupied. Adjoining it is a completely roofless ruined area, maintained as a sort of garden feature. Base of stone curtain and trace of towers also survive but part of the circuit has a later brick wall built on top of it. (Kent HER)

Originally an irregular quandrangle castle situated on two islands which was probably constructed in 1378 by Roger de Ashburnham, Conservator of the Peace in Kent and Sussex. All that remains of the castle is a single round tower (the Ashburnham Tower) which was originally one of 4 angle towers. The emplacements of the other 3 can still be seen but the curtain wall survives only as a revetment to the surrounding wet moat.(PastScape–ref. Pettifer)

Sat within a large park and almost certainly a new build designed as a decorative stately home and hunting lodge in a designed landscape. It is highly picturesque which is exactly what the original builder intended. It may always have been intended to be viewed from above and the 'new' Scotney Castle may well stand on the site of medieval residential buildings. It was, as a matter of course, built in the high status military architectural style but not as a fortress.

NB. Harvey lists Scotney castle as both in Sussex and in Kent. It is was moved to Kent with border changes sometime in the mid C19, but was originally in Sussex. Most authors will describe it as being in Kent.
Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling   Listing   I. O. E.
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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