Gleaston Castle

The old castle of the Harrington Barony. Sir John De Harrington whose tomb can be seen in Cartmel Priory built this castle after the lands of his moated Manor House in Aldingham had been encroached by the sea. William Harrington was notable for fighting as Henry V's standard bearer in his Agincourt campaign. The castle was built in the 14th century and has a few intact solar towers and a keep covered romantically in ivy. It is now very much a ruin, weathered and exposed, and incorporated in places into farm buildings. It can be viewed from the road or you can ask permission to walk around it, but careful because the ruins are unstable. The castle fell into ruins after William Bonville was beheaded after his capture at the Battle of St Albans. He was executed we ven though he had done his chivalric duty by protecting his enemy the hostage King Henry VI when he could have fled the battle.