Visited 29th August 2005

It's a silent 'L', so pronounce this one Whore-ton. Lying at a remote edge of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park and just 15 miles from Middlesbrough, this is an odd place for a castle. The nearby stream is only big enough to land a few ducks - a Viking army from Scandanvia would have ran aground miles downstream. The coast is nowhere in sight, and there are no major medieval urban centres. Rather, this castle was probably a more a fortified country manor house for a noble family than a Bamburgh-esque military powerhouse.

Whorlton Castle is about a mile north of the village of Swainby, from which is the only way to get there by road. Continuing past the castle is Whorlton church, and a touch after a farm, at which the road ends. The village of Whorlton itself is long since derelect and abandoned.

By road, the first sight of the castle is a small but impressive stone gatehouse. It's a 3-storey (possibly more) construction with a tower at one corner containing a spiral staircase. With tall gates at both sides, it looks like part of this area was a throughfare for vehicles, while at both sides there are visible holes in the walls that look like they were used to hold wooden floor supports. Thus, the living areas were probably two 2-storey areas at the left and right of the main gate area with a third storey running on top of both, including the main gate area. Access to the third storey from the towered staircase was blocked off with a metal grid, as the castle is unsafe. There was no sign of another staircase.

Walking through the gatehouse, it is more obvious than before that Whorlton is on quite a steep hill, a steep ditch . Apart from what remains of the walls at the back, of which contain some unusual cellar-like rooms, there are no other stonework evident. However, the nearby village of Swainby was built using the stones from the castle walls in Victorian times. Presumably, therefore, Whorlton previously had walls running the circumference of the hill. It's a good guess that the castle walls were at least 2-storeys given that the remaining cellar-rooms had a staircase.

Remains of recent bonfires, metal candlestick holders seem to indicate that the castle is frequented. A quick search on Google reveals that devil worshippers and drug-dealers lurk there by night. The current owners, who are keen on converting the castle into a house, have attempted to build fences and install security measures to protect the castle from vandalism, however nothing has been successful so far.

A little further up the road is Whorlton Church. A charming little place that appears to be in good condition - the roof, windows, and doors are all in tact, however a notice on the door suggests that the church is unsafe. A few services each year are still held there though. The adjoining graveyard has a lot of graves from the 18th century - maybe when Whorlton was still an active village. A few recent burials are also visible, and even though there is a graveyard in the church at Swainby, it's easy to see why people would still prefer to lie in rest in this peaceful and delightful place.

Andy Markwell