Riddlehamhope Hall Bastle (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Hexhamshire.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY91154997
Latitude 54.84447° Longitude -2.13969°

Riddlehamhope Hall Bastle has been described as a probable Bastle.

There are masonry footings remains.

Description

Solitary form bastle. Byre entrance in gable end (Ryder 1990).
The ruins of Riddlehamhope Hall are remotely sited at the head of the Beldon Burn. The house in its latest form appears to have been a Victorian shooting lodge; only the eastern part remains in a derelict condition. Attached to the west end of the house was a range of outbuildings, now largely demolished. The west end of this range is formed by a ruinous building 11.9m by 6.9m externally, which from its rubble fabric, large roughly shaped angle quoins (best seen at the north west corner) and wall thicknesses of 1.2m, seems certain to have been a bastle. A ragged break in the centre of the west wall may indicate the position of the byre doorway, although there are hints (a depression in the grassed over debris) of a central opening in the east end as well. The north wall is the best preserved part, standing to 1.5m; midway along is a window opening of no great age, but close to the east end is an original slit vent, formed of large slabs set diagonally to the wall face in the typical bastle manner. More details of the building would be revealed if the loose debris were cleared from it (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N8329.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Kevinthephotographer
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Ryder, P.F., 1994-5, Towers and Bastles in Northumberland Part 4 Tynedale District Vol. 2 p. 98
  Ryder, P.F., 1990, Northumberland Bastles Survey Unpublished p. 7

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. 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.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely 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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >		County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio