Greystoke Castle

Greystoke Castle stands in the village of Greystoke, eight kilometres west of Penrith in Cumbria. A private residence, it belongs to the Howard family and sits within a family estate. The site began as a wooden tower built by Ligulf de Greystoke after the Norman Conquest. In 1129 his grandson Ivo replaced it with the first stone structure. By the 14th century the castle had grown into a large pele tower after William de Greystoke obtained permission to fortify it. The castle passed to the Howards in 1571 when Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, married into the Dacre family. During the Civil War Parliamentarian forces under General Lambert destroyed much of the castle in 1648. In 1789 the building was enlarged and altered, then rebuilt between 1838 and 1848 by Anthony Salvin. A fire in 1868 damaged the house, but Henry Howard oversaw its restoration. The estate served as a tank drivers’ training ground in the Second World War. After the war Stafford Howard began repairs, and his son Neville now manages the property. The pele tower remains part of the present structure, surrounded by farmland developed in the 19th century. The castle’s long history is visible in its changing architecture and surviving sections.