Peel Hill Motte and Bailey Castle

Peel Hill Motte and Bailey Castle rises twenty-two feet above Thorne, its stone foundations still visible where a medieval hunting lodge once commanded the swampy chase. Leland described it in 1534 as a practical prison for forest offenders, turning a noble pleasure into a cage for broken rules. The ditch remains nearly complete, but the southern bailey has vanished into ordinary ground, leaving only the hill to remember the gatehouse and king’s chamber that once clustered beside it.