The Gatehouse website record for Caernarvon Castle, Beckermet

In the civil parish of St John Beckermet. In the historic county of Cumberland (Modern Authority of Cumbria, 1974 county of Cumbria).

In 1671 "Caernarvon Castle" was a rectangular ruin 100 yards long by about 85 yards broad, with a ditch 12 yards wide and 4 yards deep. It stood upon a plateau approached from east and west. Opposite the latter was an artificial hill called Coneygarth cop, about 12 yards high and 6 yards across the top. Caernarvon Castle was the seat of Sir Michael Flemming, its first owner, who died in 1153. The castle was abandoned about 1250 and pulled down. (Ferguson, Collingwood) Sir Daniel Fleming's description of Coneygarth Cop is interpreted by Collingwood as a Norman moated mound with base court. (This has resulted in publication on OS 1:25 000 1952 of Coneygarth Cop as a Motte & Bailey, and the equation of the Cop and Caernarvon Castle on OS 1:10 560 1956) Short trenches cut across the apparently filled-in ditch at the Caernarvon Castle site in 1957 revealed traces of rubble walls with stones about 2ft by 1-1/2ft. A cobbled area was found just north of Coneygarth Cop at a depth of 3 feet. Excavations unpublished. (PastScape)
King describes this a low shapeless mound, not a motte, and he rejects it as a castle. Jackson says site is ploughed down and that excavation in 1962 revealed evidence of a form of palisading. Clearly there was something here, but the location, outside the village, is more suggestive of a late medieval or early modern high status house as is the rectangular form. Coneygarth Cop may be any of several types of artificial mounds of which a large pillow mound (rabbit warren) is one. The manor was held by the Fleming family who's Norman caput may have been Wodowbank (qv), near to the river crossing at Thornhill. The family moved to Coniston in 1250, but I don't see any reason why a secondary residence may not have been retained here. The historical evidence certainly suggests a castle, of the Flemings, near Beckermet from the late C11, but whether here or Wodowbank is uncertain. Requires further investigation.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NY021073

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 8684
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 1249 '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.

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