I bet you've all gone straight to this page to see which Castle in England is ours and how to get there so you can brag to your friends on family...why not that's what I'd do! Sadly though I'm going to have to disappoint your straight away by telling you the above castle has nothing what so ever to do with the Routledges and a simply a nice picture of a pretty castle I thought I would use to grab your attention... evil aren't I? Anyway, getting back to being serious and informative. Technically the Routledges at various points in history have owned Castles in both England and Ireland, whilst also owning Pele Towers and Bastle House in England too.
Routledge Castles
The first Castle that we can partly claim to have some connection to I have already covered on the previous page, which is the castle at Bewcastle. We were sort of loaned this Castle and its lands rent free under the proviso that we provided service to the Kings army should he require us. Perhaps he should have called for us and then he might not have met his end at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. Either way, this was when the Castle and its lands were taken away from us and given to another family, the Musgrave's. So yes Bewcastle was the Routledges, well half of it, from 1473 - 1485. Twelve years then the below heap of stones and rubble was ours before been given to someone else.
Bewcastle is the only Castle we are connected to in England, well we are connected to a few in Scotland but we seemed to have spent most of our time burning those ones down. This means that our search for Routledge Castles takes us over the water to Ireland and into County Mayo and Roscommon, where after fleeing the end of the Reivers, courtesy of James I of England, we had no choice but to travel to, to escape persecution and the gallows. This in the end turned out to not be that much of a bad thing as you will read later on in the site. The Routledge/Rutledges of Ireland prospered in their early early years and soon became very large land owners, owning not 10's, but hundreds of acres.
Exactly a hundred years after John and Cuthbert had Bewcastle Stripped
form them we find that another Rutledge has gained ownership of a castle.
This time it is a Thomas Rutledge who in 1585 is described as the owner of
Castle Coote in Co. Roscommon in Ireland. Also in the same document it
says that there is a Andrew Rutledge living near by too. Perhaps a
relation or just another Routledge who looked for a better life in Ireland
than on the Borders. Who can blame them either, as this was smack in the
middle of the 10 years of hell. The next Castles we find in Ireland, well
part of castles, owned by Routledges are owned by the same man, a Richard
Rutledge. We find in records that in 1611 he owns a Castle at Canbo, and
is claiming he owns half of Bally-murry castle.
As
for when either of these Castle were lost I have yet to find, but as you
will read later on, it was most likely when Cromwell and his men came to
Ireland. So with that end the Routledges Castles, well unless there is any
Routledges out there today who live in a Castle which they have bought for
themselves, oh and putting your new born child in a Lego castle doesn't
count.
Bastle House and Pele Towers
This section is a lot more fruitful in fueling your imagination regarding the Routledges as Border Reivers. It is heavily interconnected with the Musgrave list and raids into the parish of Bewcastle and its neighbouring parishes too. From the records of where Castles have been and a map in 1590, it is possible to start connecting Routledge families with possible towers and bastle houses by. For example John Routledge of Cumcrook in the 1583 list is shown on the map as John of Cumcrook next to a fortified house symbol.
A Bastle house, for those who don't know, is just a fortified farm house. It is usually over two stories and has walls in any place no thinner then one metre thick (3.3ft). Animals could be stored downstairs and access to upstairs could only be reached from outside. This meant that the family could withdraw upstairs to hide from raiders and if they did try to attack. In the photo's you see below you will notice that they all have stone steps leading to the second floor, but in the Reivers time they would have had a ladder which they would take in at night and when under attack. Bastle houses can be seen all along the borders, you just have to know what to look for. The main sign is the characteristic narrow still windows and head stone build. A lot of bastles have survive to today and have been incorporated into farms and villages and painted or plastered over, but if you look hard you can still see them.
As for pele towers these were for those who had a lot more money, power and status. They were the next step up from bastle houses but not quite a castle. Because the remains of many tower houses in the Borders now stand alone, its easy to forget that in the reiver times, they were the centre of a thriving if not small community. Most of these sites have little remains of the various buildings such as stables, storehouses and agricultural life that surrounded them and sustained the owner, his family and followers and servants. The standard tower house or pele tower was a rough square or rectangular shape and generally comprised of a barrel-vaulted basement, supporting three or four storeys. Although towers varied in their size many of them measured 9m by 12m around, and rising to 12m to 18m high. And again the walls would be 1.5-3m thick making the tower very strong for its size.
Routledge Bastles
I say bastles, they may have been nothing more than fortified houses, sort of a cheaper version. However looking further into things it seems as if in fact the Routledge Reivers did in fact have two Towers. One at Cumcrook, and one at Lukens. The later of the two I have fleetingly mentioned regarding the execution of Thomas Routledge for treason at Carlisle in July 1535. He, and his father William, were described as having lived at the Lukkens of Leven, and from this point onwards on maps a tower is described as Willie Toms Tower. Which as local historians have agreed with me that this must have been Thomas, son of Williams Tower at the Lukkens. Below is the 1590 map which shows not only this tower marked, but also Cumcrook, Troughead and Bailey which are all listed in the 1583 Musgrave list.
But these were not the only homes that the Routledges would have in area. Various records in books, raids, map and archives give us a list and description of these places. In total I have confirmed six, two towers and four bastle houses. Sadly none of which have survived the test of time
Hall Hills: The earthworks and buried remains of Hall Hills medieval dispersed settlement. It is located on a local high point overlooking the confluence of Hall Sike and Kirk Beck, 370m WNW of St Cuthbert's Church, and includes a partly mutilated platform upon which lie the turf-covered remains of a small stone-built house, and enclosure and a small building platform
Low Todholes: Supposed site of tower mentioned in 1510 and 1553 and presumably the same as Todholles mentioned in 1581
Nook: Slight traces of tower or bastle burnt in 1587. Possibly The Bailie shown on the 1590 map. Called Nuke in documents of 1587 and 1612. Site of bastle at Nook. Maughan, writing in 1862, states that `at a place called the Nook, near Roantrees is a field which is generally known by the name of Cairns... at this place there was formerly an old building with very thick walls and portholes like those in the tower at Crews.' This suggests this was a bastle site
Willie Toms Tower: Vanished tower shown on map of 1590 marked 'Willie Toms' and on 1607 map marked 'Nether Lockenes', and also described in 1535.
Cumcrook: Tower symbol referring to John Cumcrook, (probably John Routledge of Cumcrook) is depicted on the 1590 map of Cumbria. It is depicted as a house at `Querlokens' on the 1607 plot. Probably a stonehouse or bastle. Shown as west of river.
Troughead: Vanished tower shown on map of 1590 as 'Troughead' and on 1607 platt as 'Trough heade'
Alas though that is it for us Routledges and posh fancy homes. If you go onto the Pastscape website you can get exact locations of these places and you can drag your relatives to the windy fields they once ocupied. Below are the links to these pages.
Willie Toms Tower / Nook / Cumcrook / Hallhills
