The Gatehouse website record for Foss Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Lythe; Mulgrave; Fossards; Mulgreit

In the civil parish of Lythe. In the historic county of Yorkshire North Riding (Modern Authority of North Yorkshire, 1974 county of North Yorkshire).

Motte and bailey castle founded in 1072, and abandoned in about 1200 when Robert de Turnham built Old Mulgrave Castle, its stone successor, 700m to the east. The motte has a diameter of 50m and is surrounded by an 8m wide, 2m deep ditch. The mound is 4m high, the flat top being 40m in diameter, partially surrounded by a 0.5m high rampart bank. To the northeast of the motte, running at a tangent to it, is a ditch. This is 5m wide and 1.5m deep at its northwest end but becomes 10m wide and 3m deep at its southeast end. The motte is flanked by two enclosures, or baileys. The one to the north is triangular, measuring 60m by 30m, bounded by the ditch on its northeast side. The southern bailey is larger, measuring 65m long by 40m wide.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ831117

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 29496
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record. In particular 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website, or elsewhere.

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

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