Castle of Comfort

The Castle of Comfort is probably a 16th-century inn, significantly altered in 1655 and again in the late 19th century, and now serving as a hotel. It is constructed of roughcast over rubble, with a plain tile roof, decorative ridge tiles, overhanging eaves, decorative bargeboards and brackets, and a brick stack to the right of the entrance and centre left. The building’s plan has undergone extensive modifications, likely originating as an open hall house, ceiled in 1655. A stair turret is located at the rear, and outer bays were extended with gabled cross wings.

The two-storey façade is long, with scattered late 19th-century casement windows, mostly with small panes. The left gable end has two small 20th-century casements. The centre of the façade features 2-light casements, grouped one to the left and three to the right, three of which have gables. A 20th-century casement is located in the right gable end. The ground floor of the left gable end is unlit, with a segmental-headed carriage-way entrance now glazed on the right return. To the left of the entrance are three narrow single-light casements, and a 2-light casement. Three narrow casements and a 2-light casement are to the right, and a 2-light casement is in the right gable end. A pantiled gabled porch with decorative bargeboards features a plank door.

Inside, a notable feature is the plaster decoration on the first-floor chimney breast, dated 1655. This displays a coat of arms flanked by strawberry flowers, with a chamfered wooden lintel carried in cyma recta sandstone brackets and unchamfered jambs. A plaster motif on the ceiling includes a conical pendant. A licensed vitualler was recorded at the Castle of Comfort in 1689, and it continued as an inn until the 1860s. Dorothy Wordsworth recorded a visit in her diary in 1798.