Auckland Castle West Mural Tower And West Walls

Auckland Castle West Mural Tower and West Walls are located in Bishop Auckland. The walls surrounding the castle garden, yard, and lawn to the west of the castle include the west mural tower. The first wall is believed to date back to the 14th century, with extensive rebuilding undertaken for Bishop Cosin around 1660, and further alterations made in the 18th century.

The materials used include a rubble boundary wall and west tower with ashlar coping, irregular quoins, and brick and ashlar blocking on the tower. The walls surrounding the lawn feature battlemented ashlar coping. The garden wall has a brick inner leaf with a rubble outer leaf on the north and west sides, and a coursed squared stone outer leaf facing the lawn at the rear wing of the castle.

To the west, the wall adjoins the outbuildings of 18 Market Place, and at the north end of the castle yard, there is a small boarded door leading to an outbuilding set against the south wall of the mural tower. The south wall of the tower features a pointed arched door. The west wall of the tower, visible from the yard east of Nos 24 and 25 Market Place, has one wide opening on each floor that is blocked with narrow bricks. The lower opening has an ashlar slab with a cross slit inserted.

The interior of the tower is derelict, with some beam ends for the first floor still in place. Substantial beams from the low-pitched roof are partly fallen, and no roof covering is visible. The kitchen garden walls are tall and include a low blocked flue arch. The west wall of the garden, which separates it from the lawn, is thick stone and features a high segmental arch inserted at the south end, along with a narrow blocked pointed arch next to it. In the north wall, there is a pointed arch with a shaped panelled door.