Hornby Castle

Hornby Castle is a large house with an early 16th-century keep on earlier foundations, significantly altered over the centuries. The south-west front was entirely remodelled in a domestic Gothic style during 1849-52 by Sharpe and Paley, with further additions and alterations in 1881 and 1889-91 by Paley and Austin. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble with slate roofs, and sits on an irregular plan including a hall, a tapered courtyard containing the keep, and a further tower.

The south-west facade presents a balanced composition, featuring a central three-storey porch and wings projecting on either side, all with embattled parapets. The windows are predominantly mullioned or mullioned and transomed, with round heads to the lights. The projecting wings incorporate two-story bay windows, canted on the first floor only. The left-hand wing has two second-floor windows above the bay, each with cusped Y-tracery and pointed heads. To either side of the porch are two bays with windows of varied design. The porch has a diagonal buttress to the right and an octagonal turret to the left. An oriel window of semicircular plan is located on the first floor.

At the rear of the front block, remnants of the original tower have been revealed, featuring a mutilated first-floor oriel window. Above it, the upper storey was remodelled in the mid-19th century, but below it are two blocked two-light mullioned windows with hoods. The north-east wall of the tower features an early 17th-century Venetian window, partly blocked, and a stone inscribed with the motto 'Glav et gant'. Another stone carved with an eagle's claw is also present, referencing the rebuild of the keep by the 1st Lord Monteagle. The north-west facade dates from the later 19th-century rebuilding.

A gateway with a moulded pointed arch provides access to the rear courtyard on the north-east side. Internally, the porch contains a vestibule with a plaster vault featuring foliated bosses. It is divided from the hall by a Tudor arch containing a glazed timber screen in a Gothic style. The hall fireplace is constructed of sandstone, with a Tudor arch and spandrel decoration. A library on the left-hand side contains woodwork believed to be by Gillows, including a fireplace surround, overmantel, and fitted bookcases with elaborate carving in a late 16th-century style. The original main staircase was removed in the 20th century, and is replaced by a dog-leg staircase with turned balusters. A billiard room decorated in a Gothic style is located on the first floor.