Risinghoe Castle

Risinghoe Castle is a small earthwork mound in Goldington, on the north bank of the River Ouse near Bedford. It stands three miles east of Bedford Castle and a mile west of Renhold Castle. The site is sometimes called Goldington Castle but is best known as Risinghoe Castle. It was once thought to be a timber motte-and-bailey castle built after the Norman Conquest. Hugh de Beauchamp, the main landowner in Goldington in 1086, is recorded as its owner. Historians debate whether the mound was ever a proper castle. No visible remains of a bailey or other castle structures survive today. Clay digging in Victorian times may have removed much of the evidence. Some claim the mound was excavated in 1943, though no records confirm this. Local accounts say an air-raid shelter was dug in 1940 without finding anything inside. The site remains on private land and is not open to visitors. It can be seen from nearby roads. Some writers suggest the mound commemorates a 9th-century victory over the Danes. An old Ordnance Survey map still labels it as a castle site. A second, smaller mound once stood nearby but has now disappeared.