Mount Ferrant Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Burythorpe

In the civil parish of Birdsall.
In the historic county of Yorkshire East Riding (Modern Authority of North Yorkshire, 1974 county of North Yorkshire).

Remains of motte and bailey, situated on a headland, with oval platform and ditches still visible. It was probably destroyed in 1173, the material being used to build part of Meaux Abbey.

This site has been described as a;
Timber Castle.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Earthworks remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SE79546390

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 59719

Books

Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p63
Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p21
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p513
Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield)
Armitage and Montgomerie, 1912, in Page, Wm (ed), VCH Yorkshire Vol2 p2

Journal Articles

Brown, R, Allen, 1959, 'A List of Castles, 1154–1216' English Historical Review Vol74 [Reprinted in Brown, R. Allen, 1989, Castles, conquest and charters: collected papers (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p249-280]

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/yorkseng.html#yorks31]
Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p544, 545, 568
Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p58

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