Sigston Castle

Sigston Castle is a two-acre trapezoid of earth and ditch at the base of a North Yorkshire hill, holding a central mound that probably marked its main buildings. John de Sigston received a licence to crenellate the place in 1336, yet he died childless in 1348, pushing the estate through the Place and Pigot families until Ralph Pigot’s childless death in 1503 broke the line of heirs who might have lived there. The castle became a border of memory rather than a home, its southern tip still touching the road near Kirby Sigston while people walk past the western and northern sides without knowing they are tracing the outline of a forgotten life.