Friends of Historic Dilston: The History of Dilston

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The History of Dilston Castle

Dilston Castle is a fortified tower house, built by Sir William Claxton in the mid-fifteenth century, at a time when Border raiding was a constant threat. It is first referred to in a deed drawn up by his son Sir Robert Claxton in 1464. Archaeological evidence suggests that an earlier manor house or castle, belonging to the lords of Dyvelston and Tyndale, stood on the same spot.

Earthworks of the medieval village of Dyvelston can be traced in the pasture field to the east of the tower house. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Radcliffe Family transformed the tower house into a more comfortable Elizabethan/Jacobean style of dwelling, the gateway of which stands today. The following century it was incorporated in Dilston Hall, a palatial mansion owned by James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater. Dilston Hall was demolished in 1768.

Dilston Castle stands on an ancient site, the earliest recorded mention being in the 12th century

Dilston Chapel

Dilston Chapel is a rare example of a Post-Reformation recusant chapel, built c.1616, allegedly with money raised for financing the Gunpowder Plot. It was designed specifically for Roman Catholic worship, at a time when this was against the law. Sir Francis Radcliffe, who owned the manor at the time, was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the plot, whilst Guy Fawkes is said to have been at Dilston shortly beforehand.

A Roman gravestone, carved with the standing figure of a woman, is one of several ancient stones built into the walls of the chapel. It is probable that the person depicted on this stone was buried alongside the Roman road, Dere Street, which crossed Dilston Haugh nearby.

The Radcliffes of Dilston

The ambitious Radcliffes, who owned the manor for two centuries, rose to become the wealthiest and most prominent Roman Catholic family in the north of England through marriage into the Royal House of Stuart. Everything was lost when James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, took up arms in support of his cousin Prince James Stuart, in the ill-fated Jacobite Rising of 1715. The Earl was found guilty of high treason, and beheaded on Tower Hill the following year. The untimely death on the scaffold of the kindly young nobleman served to inspire a succession of laments, biographies, historical novels and numerous legendary tales. Long after the demise of the Radcliffes of Dilston, stories of James, the 'Bonny Lord', lived on in local folklore.

The ‘Bonny Lord’ of Dilston Hall

Dilston is renowned for having been the home of James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater - the most tragic and romantic figure in Northumbrian history. Set in beautiful wooded grounds and approached through an avenue of giant redwood trees, Dilston Castle and Chapel are the remaining features of the Earl’s, once magnificent, estate.

O Derwentwater’s a bonny lord,
And golden is his hair,
And glenting is his hawking e’e
With kind love dwelling there.

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Portrait of James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater