En un regard
Le château en bref
Kershope Castle, also recorded in the sources as Kirshope, Gresshope or Carrshope, is a medieval fortified site on the southern slope of Deadwater Moor, deep in Kielder Forest, in the civil parish of Kielder (Northumberland). Set on a steep south-west-facing slope, it overlooks the upper valley of the North Tyne, only a few kilometres from the Scottish border, while itself being overlooked by higher ground to the north-east.
Written references are scarce and difficult to interpret. A Robert "de Gresshope" appears in 1249, and a deed of 1304 confirms a grant of land at "Gresshoppa" originally made by Malcolm IV, King of Scots (d. 1165), at a time when this part of Tynedale belonged to the Scottish crown. The scheduling record suggests the tower existed by the mid-12th century, perhaps built on an earlier earthwork, whereas the castle historian Cathcart King sees no documented history of a tower here and considers a Scottish construction possible.
The surviving remains amount to a rectangular mound about 7 m by 5 m, surrounded on three sides by a ditch some 6.5 m wide and still more than a metre deep, with traces of an outer bank and a section of masonry on the north-west side, possibly the inner face of the tower. The north-east half was destroyed by a forestry track and deep ploughing. The site is protected as a Scheduled Monument and lies on forestry land where access is at the landowner's discretion.
