Castle Barn, Flanking Dovecotes And Screen Walls

Castle Barn, flanking dovecotes, and screen walls were built around 1750 by Thomas Wright of Durham, with the north inner pier of the east wall inscribed with the date "1748". The structure is made of rubble with freestone dressings and quoins, topped by a double Roman tiled roof. It features a castellated Gothic style in a symmetrical arrangement.

The outer walls, which extend 25 yards on either side of the main building, are two-storey screen walls with embattled parapets and two loop windows. The west wall forms the gable of a two-storey, two-window 20th-century house, while the east wall still screens a dilapidated outbuilding.

The main building has two outer dovecote towers that are square and three stages high, also featuring embattled parapets. The ground floor has two blocked loop windows, and the first floor has blocked segmental headed windows, a cill band, and open segmental windows at the upper stage. There are large segmental headed carriage entries at the rear and brick nesting boxes inside.

The screen walls connecting the towers to two-storey turrets are semi-circular in plan and have blocked loop and segmental headed windows. In the center is the gable end of the barn, which has a blocked north door under a depressed ogee head and loop windows on either side, along with a blocked quatrefoil in the crow stepped gable.

There are east and west gabled porches, both with trefoil heads for the carriage entries, slit vents on the west side, and blocked semi-circular headed windows on the east side. The interior consists of nine bays with a king post roof dated "1839," and the roof of the east porch is dated 18PP (possibly 1899). This building is a significant example of Thomas Wright's castellated Gothic architecture and is one of his most important works for the 4th Duke of Beaufort, created between 1748 and 1756.