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Kilton Castle
Lying on the northern fringe of the North Yorkshire Moors is the castle and village of Kilton. It dates back to the Medieval period where it was part of the parish of Skelton; one of many estates in the north east owned by the de Brus family, the same Bruce family who eventually took the Scottish throne in the early 14th Century.
In general, the landscape around Kilton has seen three major re-organisations. Until the Norman Conquest there would have been a spread of farmsteads working the land relatively unchanged since the end of Roman occupation. In the late 12th Century, Kilton Castle was constructed on a rocky outcrop residing over the Kilton Beck valley. It was commissioned by the de Kilton family who were leased the land by the de Brus family. Immediately the landscape became more intensively worked, and so came the creation of the large Medieval village of Kilton to house the increase of population, which can still be seen today as earthworks.
The local industry of the area focussed on milling, with mills being documented at Kilton in AD 1323 and AD 1344. A 19th Century watermill complete with outbuildings still stands on Kilton Beck and may occupy the same position as one of the Medieval mills.
By the end of the Medieval period the settlements had shrunk and the castle was all but abandoned during the 14th Century, and left to ruin by the 16th Century. In the 18th Century another large village estate was built at Kilton of which nothing now survives, being replaced in the 19th Century by large farmstead estates at Kilton and Stank House which still remain as working farms today.
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