Arnside Tower is a Grade II* listed building in the Westmorland and Furness local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 February 1962. A Medieval Fortified tower house.

Arnside Tower

WRENN ID
dreaming-banister-peregrine
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Westmorland and Furness
Constituency
Morecambe and Lunesdale MP: Lizzi Collinge (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 February 1962
Type
Fortified tower house
Period
Medieval
OS grid reference
SD 458 768
Coordinates
54.18445, -2.83082
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Arnside Tower is a fortified tower house, likely built in the 15th century. It was burnt in 1602, repaired probably in the mid-17th century, and dismantled in the late 17th century. The structure features massive limestone rubble walls with roughly dressed stone details. It has a rectangular staircase tower and a projecting garderobe, and it was formerly five storeys high. Window openings are present on all sides, with some blocked or extended; the surviving openings have square heads. A parapet, which projects on rounded corbels, remains at the north-west corner. Inside, there are remnants of a cross-wall that includes a newel stair, fireplaces with stone lintels, and a niche on the first floor that is said to have been used as a piscina, suggesting that the east corner may have served as a chapel. Although it is in a ruinous state, Arnside Tower is considered a unique example in this area of a freestanding tower built without a hall block.

Local climate

Arnside Tower sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,440 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 98% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 97% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 51% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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