The Gatehouse

The Gatehouse is a Grade I listed structure located in Durham, built around 1500 for Prior Castell, who served from 1494 to 1519. It was restored around 1860. The building is constructed from coursed squared sandstone, featuring a chamfered ashlar plinth and ashlar dressings. It has an arched gateway with a lodge on the north side and a chapel above, standing two storeys tall with one bay. The gateway features a double-chamfered two-centred arch beneath a renewed dripmould, with eroded niches above flanking a renewed three-light Perpendicular window under a dripmould. The structure is topped with a low-pitched coped gable parapet on a string course.

Inside, there are two quadripartite ribbed vaults with tiercerons, each adorned with carved bosses. The eastern vault displays the arms of the See of Durham held by an angel, while the western vault features Prior Castell's badge. The interior also includes blind wall arcades, a square-headed door, and a two-light window leading to the lodge on the north side. Between the vaults, there is a Tudor-arched vehicle entrance and north pedestrian arches with ledged boarded gates.

The interior features a wavy-rail closed-string stair with a ramped handrail, which is now blocked at the foot, with access to the first-floor level from an adjacent building. A stone newel stair at the west end leads to the former chapel, which retains its original low-pitched wooden roof supported by large beams.