Fort Montague With Attached Wall To West

Fort Montague, with an attached wall to the west, is a house built between 1770 and 1786 by Thomas Hill and his son. It is rock-cut with rubble stone, partly rendered, and has a Westmorland slate roof. The building has four storeys and a single room in plan, cut into the face of the cliff. On the east side, there is a segmental arched entrance to the top storey, located on the right, which features a six-panel door in a plain frame. There are no other openings on this side. The south face has one window on each floor, with side-sliding sashes that have glazing bars on the lower three floors and a four-pane sash on the top floor. The building is topped with an embattled parapet, and the wall to the left is also embattled. Thomas Hill, a weaver, established a tenement on the cliff face, which was land owned by Thomas Slingsby. Over 16 years, he terraced the cliff and constructed the house, with completion by his son. This building is one of several rock-cut dwellings in Knaresborough from the 18th and 19th centuries and is also known as The House in the Rock.