Belsay Castle

Belsay Castle is a tower house with an attached house, dating back to approximately 1370. An attached house was added in 1614, potentially built around an earlier core, by Thomas Middleton and Dorothy, his wife. Ruined fragments of an early 18th-century west wing are attached to the left.

The building is constructed from squared stone and ashlar. The tower has a lead roof, while the attached house is roofless. The tower is three storeys high, stepped at the first floor. It features a chamfered plinth. The south side has a slit window on the ground floor, a large two-light mullioned-and-transomed window on the first floor with cinquefoil heads to the lights, and a smaller two-light mullioned window with trefoiled heads also on the first floor. The second floor has a further two-light mullioned window with cinquefoil heads. A battlemented machicolated parapet tops the tower, supported by close-set triple-step corbels, with higher, round corner turrets on multi-moulded corbels. The turret to the left is notably taller and flanked by square projections. The north side contains a 19th-century doorway and two-light mullioned-and-transomed and smaller two-light mullioned windows on the first and second floors respectively, both with cinquefoil heads to the lights. A garderobe chute is also present. The west side, now integrated into the house, displays a recessed central section containing a doorway with a pointed arch and chamfered surround. A Tudor-arched blocked doorway is on the first floor, and a pointed-arched doorway with a chamfered surround is on the second floor, partially obscured by a 19th-century external stack. The attached house has a two-storey porch with a round-headed, multi-mullioned doorway flanked by paired Tuscan columns. A Middleton coat of arms is displayed above the doorway within a moulded frame, with an inscription above that. The first floor of the house boasts a five-light mullioned-and-transomed window. Original walling and windows to the right of the porch appear largely original; other external features are of mid-18th century design, in a similar style.

Attached to the north side of the tower is a two-storey barn, altered in the 18th and 19th centuries, but largely constructed of medieval masonry. The east side has a blocked two-light mullioned window and several blocked small 16th-century windows, while the west side has five 18th-century bays with a doorway in the fourth bay. All openings have raised surrounds and are now boarded up.

The tower's interior plan reveals a large chamber occupying the entire eastern side on each floor, with short projecting wings on either side of the entrance, containing a staircase, smaller rooms, and garderobes. A large, pointed, tunnel-vaulted kitchen is located on the ground floor, featuring a fireplace with a segmental arch. The hall on the first floor retains traces of 15th-century mural decoration. The staircase has an umbrella vault above with eight chamfered ribs.