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Highmoat; The Mote

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
ffergus grame, High Moat; Liddale; Liddel Moat; ye mote; Red Hill

In the civil parish of Kirkandrews.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY39907381
Latitude 55.05513° Longitude -2.94233°

Highmoat; The Mote has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such, and also as a probable Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of "tower and houses of ffergus Grame" marked on map of 1552. Mentioned as burnt by the Scots in 1528, but possible rebuilt by the Grahams. Abandoned 1603-25. On 1590 map marked as tower called 'ye mote' and on 1607 platt as tower marked 'The Mote' No evidence of a motte but name suggestive and could be a possible location for an outwork or siege work of Liddel Strength, however, could have been a tower and moat rather than a motte site. (Derived from PastScape and Perriam and Robinson)

The 1590 map is crude and the given map reference in PastScape may be to precise. 'ye mote' could be the 'Red Hill' of the 1607 plot, which is at a place called Mote.

Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	OS getamap	Streetmap	Old-Maps	Where's the path
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	EarthTools
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	Flashearth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 10858.
County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 25.

Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 238
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99 (slight)
  Jackson, M.J.,1990, Castles of Cumbria (Carlisle: Carel Press) p. 72
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1
  Jeffrey, A., 1864, History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire Vol. 4 p. 232 (facsimile of map) online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- 1590, A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England (The Aglionby Platt) British Library online Gallery

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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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This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013

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