Qualla: Hayton Castle

Hayton Castle: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At the Battle of Worcester in 1651, a horse was shot from under King Charles II. Sir Edward Musgrave dismounted and gave the king his own. The royalist defeat that followed sent Charles fleeing across England disguised as a servant, and sent Musgrave fleeing to Scotland to hide with the Duke of Gordon. Cromwell wanted him so badly that he warned the Duke he would send a troop of horse to storm the castle if Ned Musgrave were not handed over. The Duke let him slip away to the Isle of Man, where he hid until it was safe to return. The Musgrave family seat at Hayton Castle was not so lucky. Parliamentary forces battered the south end of the building badly enough that it had to be rebuilt entirely after the war. The castle still stands today, a Grade I listed fortified house holding the marks of its centuries.

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Hayton Castle: Walls Two Metres Thick

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hayton Castle began as a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century tower house, the type built across the border country in response to Scottish raids and English counter-raids. It was extended in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and gradually domesticated from fortress to family ...

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Hayton Castle: Fourteen Generations

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The manor of Hayton was originally granted by Alan, second Lord of Allerdale, to his huntsman Seliff, whose descendants took the name de Hayton. The line passed through several families and reached the Musgrave family through a marriage in the fifteenth century. From Nicholas Mus...

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Hayton Castle: A Tenant Castle

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In the early nineteenth century the manor of Hayton separated from the baronetcy and passed to Mrs Jolliffe, a younger daughter and eventually sole heiress of Sir Richard Musgrave. The Jolliffes never lived at Hayton. They preferred to lease it as a tenant farm, which is how the ...

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Hayton Castle: A Queen's Ring, Maybe

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Hayton Castle is one of several Cumbrian houses claimed to have sheltered Mary, Queen of Scots in the days after she fled across the Solway Firth from Scotland in 1568. The legend has her staying here on the night of 17 May. On leaving, she is said to have given her host a miniat...

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