Candleston Castle

Candleston Castle is a ruined castle built of rubble stone, comprising several interconnected ranges around a courtyard. The main structure is a two-storey hall range oriented north to south, containing an undercroft and first-floor hall. A two-stage tower stands at the south end of the hall range, set slightly back from its west wall. A stable wing is attached to the east side of the tower, and the remains of another wing project westward from the hall. On the west side, fragments of a faceted curtain wall form a rough D-shape in plan.

The tower has small stair lights in its south wall and large openings in the upper stage, with putlog holes visible. The east wall contains a central segmental-headed opening in the upper stage with missing voussoirs. Two small stair lights appear in the west wall, where the curtain wall meets at the southwest angle. The tower is entered from the undercroft through its north wall, leading to the remains of a mural stair. The undercroft beneath the tower is vaulted and accessed from the hall range through a two-centred doorway with stop-chamfer surround. At the top of the stairs, one stop-chamfered doorway jamb survives, leading into the upper chamber. The upper chamber contains a garderobe in the northeast corner, reached through a doorway with a triangular head. A doorway in the north wall connects through to the hall, and a narrow lancet-headed doorway in the west wall gives access to stone steps leading up to a former wall walk on the curtain wall. A single corbel in the centre of the north wall may be the remains of a corbelled external stack serving the hall.

The hall range's west wall has an inserted doorway with a window above it, and to the left is a similar first-floor window with a blocked doorway beneath (visible only from inside). The east wall, with ground banked against it, retains one upper-storey window; lower-storey openings are visible only from within. The original entrance to the hall range stood at the north end of the west wall, where the wing was later added. The surviving outer and inner arch jambs of this original doorway display wave-moulded chamfers and the haunches of Tudor arches. This doorway originally led to stairs serving the first-floor hall. To the right of the doorway, a cross wall in the undercroft contains a fireplace with a segmental head and an infilled hearth, above which sits a single moulded corbel. To its right, a Tudor-headed doorway leads up to the hall. One jamb of the hall entrance doorway survives above and to the left of the fireplace. A later fireplace has been inserted into the east wall of the undercroft, to the right of which is a blocked window.

The south wall of the hall displays a fine Tudor-Gothic chimneypiece with the remains of a Tudor head. Its filleted jambs rise as shafts with foliage trails in hollow chamfers above the fireplace, supporting a former shelf. To the left of the fireplace, the doorway to the tower is located.

The wing has an inserted doorway with brick jambs in its south wall, now blocked, and a similar blocked doorway to the right with a segmental brick head, with a window above. The west gable end contains an inserted window with brick jambs and a segmental head, now blocked with stone. To the left are openings from a former outshut, comprising a wide doorway with one brick-repaired jamb and a small opening above in a dressed stone surround. The north wall of the wing retains chamfered doorway jambs at low level, now blocked with stone.

The stable wing has a four-window south wall, now detached from the tower. A doorway on the right has a segmental head; former doorways to the left and right of centre have been converted to windows, with a brick head to the left. The window to the left of centre is narrowed within a brick surround. Windows in the upper storey to the right have brick heads, while a window to the left of centre is blocked. The ground level is built up against the gable end and rear.

The curtain wall is ruinous and discontinuous, with 19th-century battlements.