Was this the site of the stronghold of the de Percys?

On the Ordnance Survey map this raised mound is annotated as a ‘motte‘, a flat-topped mound normally associated with a motte-and-bailey castle¹Wikipedia Contributors. 2022. ‘Motte-And-Bailey Castle’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_castle#Motte> [accessed 3 September 2022].  John Walker Ord cites the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden as being the only mention of a ‘castle’ at Kildale²‘The History and Antiquities of Cleveland’. 2013. Google Books <https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qPsnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=%22kildale+castle%22&source=bl&ots=0Dj7qxi4Wg&sig=ACfU3U316Ec551PLOmOJ_IZ9AYLZrhqSUw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHqdn6uPn5AhVsSkEAHXArCRcQ6AF6BAgTEAM#v=onepage&q=%22kildale%20castle%22&f=false> [accessed 3 September 2022].

it is now thought the mound is a naturally occuring knoll and the site of a unfortified medieval manor house, probably in occupation by the de Percys.

Archaeological excavations between 1957 and 1976 by Roland Close, Raymond Hayes, Don Spratt et al recorded several medieval stone buildings including one, seen in the foreground in the photo, which has been suggested to have been a malting house, because of two large troughs³North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 3480.. Other finds included a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon cross and century pottery sherds ranging from Romano-British to the 16th-century⁴‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2012. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=28045&resourceID=19191> [accessed 3 September 2022].

The view in the photo is north-west towards Capt. Cook’s Monument on Easby Moor.

• 1
  Wikipedia Contributors. 2022. ‘Motte-And-Bailey Castle’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motte-and-bailey_castle#Motte> [accessed 3 September 2022]
• 2
  ‘The History and Antiquities of Cleveland’. 2013. Google Books <https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qPsnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=%22kildale+castle%22&source=bl&ots=0Dj7qxi4Wg&sig=ACfU3U316Ec551PLOmOJ_IZ9AYLZrhqSUw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHqdn6uPn5AhVsSkEAHXArCRcQ6AF6BAgTEAM#v=onepage&q=%22kildale%20castle%22&f=false> [accessed 3 September 2022]
• 3
  North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 3480.
• 4
  ‘Heritage Gateway – Results’. 2012. Heritagegateway.org.uk <https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=28045&resourceID=19191> [accessed 3 September 2022]