Castlesteads

Castlesteads is a house built in the late 18th century for John Johnson, with alterations made in the mid-19th century. The building is constructed from hammer-dressed red sandstone and features a chamfered ashlar plinth, pilaster strips at the corners, a string course, and a moulded and dentilled cornice topped with a parapet. The roof is slate, and there are ashlar chimney stacks with moulded cornices.

The house has two storeys and consists of seven bays, with flanking wings that are also two storeys and three bays wide. The main entrance features top-glazed panelled doors with a radial fanlight, flanked by engaged Doric columns supporting a plain entablature and a dentilled triangular pediment. The windows are two-pane sash types with plain stone surrounds. The wings have round-headed sashes on the ground floor, which lead to tripartite sashes with glazing bars and a decorated round-headed frieze. The upper floor windows have pilaster strip surrounds interrupted by rusticated blocks, moulded triangular pediments, and console bracketed sills.

The rainwater heads are dated 1867. The wings extend in an L-shape to the side, comprising five bays. The rear of the house features apsidal staircase projections, and all rear windows are sashes with glazing bars. According to W. Hutchinson's "History of Cumberland" from 1794, this mansion was newly constructed at that time, following the purchase of the estate by Mr. Johnson in 1789. It likely replaced an earlier house belonging to the Dacre family, which was known to be built with stone from the nearby Roman Wall. The house was originally called Walton House when it was built.