Skipsea Castle Hill

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Albermarle Hill and the Baile Welts

In the civil parish of Skipsea. In the historic county of Yorkshire East Riding (Modern Authority of East Riding of Yorkshire, 1974 county of Humberside).

Well-preserved motte and bailey castle, built at some time between 1071 and 1086 by Drogo de Beauvriere (Drew de Bevrere), first of the Lords of Holderness.The castle served as the principle residence of the Lordship until replaced by the manor house at Burstwick, probably before 1200. The castle may have been abandoned in 1221 after Henry III ordered it to be slighted, although there remains some doubt as to whether this was carried out. The site has never been excavated. Most of the monument survives in good condition as earthworks, with a short length of wall made of cobbles on the east side of the motte; this possibly represents a fragment of a fore building. Field investigation suggests that a dam may have been built across a natural constriction c.200m N of the motte to create a large mere that would have completed the defences on that side, though this has been alleged to be an inland harbour. The bailey appears to have originally been horseshoe-shaped, but part has ploughed out.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TA16215507

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape Defra ELS number; 80781

• Web site links
  • http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/skipsea/skipsea.php
    http://www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_north/107/skipseacastle.htm
    http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.382
    http://www.ecastles.co.uk/skipsea.html
• Books
  • Kent, G.H.R., 2002, 'North division: Skipsea' VCH Yorkshire East Riding Vol7 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16161
    Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p93
    Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p54-5
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p281
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p298
    English, B., 1979, The Lords of Holderness, 1086-1260
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield) p103-5
    Armitage, Ella, 1912, The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles (London: John Murray) p209-11
    Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol2 p37-9
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1897, Castles of England (Heinemann) Vol2 p263
• Journal Articles
  • Harfield, C.G., 1991, 'A Hand-list of Castles Recorded in the Domesday Book' English Historical Review Vol106 p371-392 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8266%28199104%29106%3A419%3C371%3AAHOCRI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q
    Youngs, S.M., Clark, J. and Barry, T., 1987, ‘Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1986' Medieval Archaeology Vol31 p259 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]
    1973, CBA Group 4 (Yorkshire) Annual Newsletter Vol4 p15
    Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 p249-280 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p90-121] http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8266%28195904%2974%3A291%3C249%3AALOC1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
    l'Anson, W.M., 1917, 'Skipsea Castle' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol24 p258-62
    Boynton, T., 1910, 'Skipsea earthworks' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol21 p188-9
    Sheppard, 1899, Assoc. Archit. Socies. Vol25 p242-3
• Guidebooks
  • Skipsea History Workshop, n.d. [after 2000], Skipsea Castle [good, if small, leaflet] [http://www.lhi.org.uk/docs/Skipsea_Castle.pdf]
• Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
  • Rickard, John, 2002, The Castle Community. The Personnel of English and Welsh Castles, 1272-1422 (Boydell Press) [lists sources for 1272-1422] p497
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/yorkseng.html#yorks38]
    Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p548
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Atkins, C., 1988, Skipsea Castle, North Humberside: A Survey of the Earthworks 1987/88 (Humberside SMR)