White Castle Ruins

White Castle Ruins

The surviving ruins at White Castle are built of uncoursed red sandstone with ashlar dressings. They form the complete castle ground plan, including the walls and towers of both the inner and outer wards, and the walls of the twin-towered gatehouse.

The approach to the castle passes through the remains of the twin-towered outer gatehouse, where the surviving walls rise to approximately 5 metres in height. The side walls of the outer gateway are grooved for a portcullis. The inner gate passage contains a guard chamber on the left with remains of a chimney flue serving an upper fireplace. On the right of the gatehouse is a chamfered ashlar doorway with broach stops, leading to a short flight of stairs and the ruins of a mural passage.

The gatehouse passage opens into an extensive outer ward, enclosed on the north and west sides by a curved late 13th-century curtain wall. This wall features three circular and one rectangular tower at intervals along its length, with surviving walling varying in height from approximately 5 metres to 7 metres. All towers are two-storey structures with a windowless lower stage and arrow loops in the upper stage. Masonry evidence suggests the upper wall of each tower was timber-framed. The upper stage of the rectangular north-west tower is arranged as a small lodging, with the sloping hood of an upper fireplace still visible.

The inner ward is a pear-shaped enclosure reached across a 20th-century bridge spanning a deep, water-filled moat with a revetment wall. The 13th-century gatehouse of the inner ward has two circular towers flanking the gate passage. The side walls of the central entrance passage are grooved for a portcullis and have drawbar holes. The masonry of the towers and flanking curtain wall rises to the level of the former wall walk. Each tower originally had four stages and its own inner staircase. The staircase of the north-east tower has been destroyed, but the north-west tower (to the right of the entrance) has a Tudor arched entrance doorway leading to a reconstructed staircase, which rises to a 20th-century wooden viewing platform. The basement and ground floor stages of the tower have arrow loops with deeply splayed embrasures; the next stage is without windows and presumably served as a store. Little survives of the top stage, which rose above the level of the wall walk. The north-east tower (left) has been rebuilt, but its original layout was probably similar.

The gatehouse opens into the grassed enclosure of the inner ward. At the opposing south end are the foundations of an early 12th-century stone keep, which was demolished in the later 12th century when the stone curtain was built. The original entrance to the castle was probably sited next to the keep, protected by a large hornwork beyond the moat.

The great stone curtain walls were built between 1184 and 1186 to replace earlier timber defences, and four circular flanking towers were added around 1260. Each originally had four stages. The east central tower has a basement which is windowless (probably a store), a ground stage with arrow loops, blind walls at the next stage, and a fourth stage which formerly rose above the level of the old wall walk. The west central tower is similar but lacks a basement stage. The two south towers have arrow loops in splayed embrasures at basement level with two more loops at ground level; the next stage is blind with the uppermost stage now largely destroyed. The chancel of a chapel was located at ground level in the south-east tower.