Walburn Hall

Walburn Hall

Fortified manor house, originally larger than the present farmhouse. Dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, it was restored in the early 19th century by Timothy Hutton of Marske in Swaledale. The building is constructed of rubble with ashlar dressings and a stone slate roof.

The hall is a two-storey structure of irregular L-shaped plan, arranged around a cobbled courtyard to the front with two further small wings projecting to the rear. The principal range occupies the east side of the courtyard.

The west elevation of the principal range contains three bays. A quoined, gabled tower porch features a ribbed boarded door in an early 19th-century ashlar surround with a hoodmould below a blocked two-light chamfered mullion window with hoodmould. The gable contains a blocked four-centred arched light with hoodmould, square kneelers, ridged coping and a square pedestal finial. On either side of the porch is a deep plinth almost two metres high, coped with stone slates, with quoins to the right. The first floor has blocked two-light chamfered mullion windows. To the right is a raised verge with square kneeler, ridged coping and a square pedestal finial with acorn. Tripled octagonal ashlar corniced chimneys are positioned to the left and at the centre.

The rear (east) elevation of the principal range has quoins and two- and three-light chamfered mullion windows with hoodmoulds, all dating from the early 19th century. The south elevation, facing the road, also has quoins. A two-storey square bay window features a blocked five-light chamfered mullion window below a five-light chamfered mullion-and-transom window, the lower lights blind. The bay has a double-cyma-moulded pediment with a square pedestal finial set diagonally and a lead roof. Above, in the gable of the principal range, is a shuttered four-centred-arched light with hoodmould.

The cross wing to the principal range has a two-bay south elevation. The ground floor contains an early 19th-century door and windows. On the first floor, the left bay is gabled with an oriel-like 15th-century window of three pointed-arch lights in a hollow-chamfered ashlar surround, retaining some medieval heraldic stained glass. Above this is a blocked rectangular light and coped gable with finial. In the right bay is a 16th-century hollow-chamfered window of two cinquefoil-headed lights under a hoodmould. To the left of the cross wing the front wall continues at ground-floor level with a quoined, chamfered, segmental-arched doorway, connecting with a ruined section of the hall consisting of three walls standing up to first-floor height, containing various 15th and 16th-century doorways and windows.

The west return of the cross wing, originally the inside wall of the ruined section, has on the ground floor a chamfered quoined-surround doorway to the left of a blocked doorway with a four-centred arch. On the first floor are two early 19th-century windows and to the right a blocked fireplace with a four-centred arch. Ashlar coping and an octagonal chimney are at the left end, with a corniced stack in the centre.

At the north end of the rear wing, the ground floor has a blocked quoined doorway with a four-centred arch. Above is a blocked cross window with a cross window to the left. Projecting at right angles from the centre of this wall is a vast offset chimney with an opening blocked to form a doorway on the west side.

The east elevation of the rear wing has on the ground floor a chamfered mullion window of semicircular-headed lights with hoodmoulds and a similar single-light window with a vertical bar. The first floor has a hollow-chamfered mullion window of two pointed-arched lights with deeply-recessed spandrels. To the right, a quoined garderobe turret projects with a chamfered first-floor vent.

The interior contains a chamfered, triangular-headed fireplace in the living room, now ex situ. The main living rooms were located on the first floor. At the south end of the principal range is a room said to have accommodated Mary, Queen of Scots, with Elizabethan panelling to the bay window and a 18th-century chimney-piece. In the rear wing is a chamfered doorway to the garderobe.