Hornby Castle

Hornby Castle is a fortified manor house of late 15th-century, mid-18th-century, and 20th-century date. The 15th-century work was commissioned by William, Lord Conyers, while the 18th-century additions were made for Robert Conyers Darcy, Earl of Holderness. The building is constructed of coursed rubble sandstone with lead and stone slate roofs.

The principal structure comprises a south range of two storeys arranged in nine bays (3:3:3), with a three-storey two-bay tower recessed to the right. The complex also includes screen walls representing remnants of former west and east ranges. The south range incorporates 15th-century work within its mid-18th-century fabric.

The south-facing elevation features sash windows with glazing bars and hoodmoulds beneath crenellated parapets above a string course. The central three bays are canted. Between floors in the central bay is the coat of arms of the Earl of Holderness (azure crusilly with three cinquefoils argent) accompanied by swags. On the ground floor, the third bay contains a French window, while the eighth and ninth bays feature a 15th-century four-centred arched gateway. Inside the gateway is ashlar masonry bearing masons' marks, with a barrel vault interrupted by a rebated gateway with gate hooks. To left and right are matching basket-arched doorways with continuous roll and hollow moulding; the left one is blocked, while the right bears the inscription "IS 1754" on its jamb. An 18th-century lead rainwater head and pipe sit between the third and fourth bays. A turret rises above the first bay.

The 15th-century tower to the right sits on a plinth. Its ground floor contains a hollow-chamfered window of four round-arched lights with stanchions and a hoodmould bearing heraldic devices on stops. The first floor has 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars and ogee-headed top lights in keyed architraves. Between the first and second floors are two gargoyle-like grotesques. The second floor holds a hollow-chamfered window of three lights with a hoodmould. A string with corner gargoyles and crenellated parapets finishes the lead roof.

The right return of the tower features an external chimney stack on the ground and first floors, with a sash window with glazing bars in a double-chamfered surround and hoodmould on either side of it, both floors. The second floor has a two-light window with a hoodmould bearing decorative stops. A diagonal stepped buttress features a circular panel with a slipped trefoil leaf. To the right of the tower stands a single-storey crenellated screen wall representing the outer wall of the 18th-century east wing, with a semicircular bay containing three window openings with hoodmoulds.

The left return of the south range displays four bays of 20th-century windows of paired lights in ashlar surrounds. To its left is a blocked 18th-century window with a lead rainwater head and pipe. A crenellated screen wall represents the continuation of the 18th-century west wing, featuring two blocked bays, and returns further west with additional blocked ground-floor windows.

The courtyard elevation of the south range shows three bays of 15th-century date, with a four-pane window on the ground floor. The first floor contains an eight-pane sash window in a pointed-arched opening and a hollow-chamfered window of two round-arched lights with a hoodmould bearing armorial devices. Two 18th-century lead rainwater heads and pipes are present.

Internally, the ground-floor room to the left of the gatehouse is barrel vaulted. The south range contains an 18th-century Roman Doric frieze in its roof space. The first-floor room of the tower, said to have been the Duke of Leeds' bedroom, features fielded panel shutters and doors, and an acanthus ceiling of around 1800.

The 18th-century ranges, which originally formed a courtyard, were demolished around 1927 when the south range was remodelled internally. At the same time, a late 14th-century north-west tower known as St Quintin's Tower (after the medieval family which occupied the castle) was demolished. The old principal entrance, an early 16th-century enriched three-centred arched doorway, was removed and is now preserved in the Burrell Museum in Glasgow.