Distance Covered: 5 miles Time to complete walk: 2.5 hours
Safety Tips: After heavy rain the fast-flowing stream can be dangerous- take care. Also the woodland path can get muddy after rain - take a walking stick with you.
From the small coastal village of Sandsend, this walk takes you through Mulgrave Woods and to the secret castle ruins of Mulgrave Castle. The woods are only open Wednesday, Saturday and Sundays and are closed in May.
The Mulgrave Castle walk
Getting There
From Middlesbrough go up Ormesby Bank and take the left turning at the roundabout at the top of the bank. Follow the signs to Whitby on the A171 and then look for a left turning to Sandsend. Parking is limited near the woods so it would be better to opt for the main car park as you enter Sandsend. It is only a short distance from the start of the walk.
Map of the Mulgrave Castle walk
If starting from the main car park in Sandsend, follow the path near the sea wall going past the Tides café. Cross the road and walk into the small car park towards the gate into Mulgrave Woods.
Sandsend Main Car Park
Follow the path near the sea wall
Mulgrave Woods car park
Go through the gate into Mulgrave Woods and follow the clear path into the woods.
Gate into Mulgrave Woods
Go through a yard keeping to the path and keeping the stream to your left.
Go through a yard and keep to the path ahead. Follow the path to a shed in the distance.
Head for the shed in the distance. Keep to the left on the path which passes a bench on the grass.
Shed near the path
Bench on the grass
Keep to the path on the left
Further along when the path forks take the path to the left which passes a white footbridge. Do not cross over the footbridge.
Take the left fork in the path
Pass by the footbridge - do not cross over it.
At the next fork keep right.
Take the right fork in the path
When you come to a green bench and a tunnel, keep ahead to the left and keep your eyes pealed for some steps on your right which will take you up to the hidden castle.
When you come to the green bench and tunnel keep ahead on the path
Follow the path ahead
Look for some steps to the right which take you up to the castle
Mulgrave Castle is now in view and turning left after the steps look for an information panel and some more steps on your right to take you up to the castle where you can explore to your hearts content!.
Information panel on Mulgrave Castle
Steps up to the castle
Be careful if climbing onto the ruins as the stone can be slippy.
Views of Mulgrave Castle
Leave the castle and turn right and then immediately left and keep on this gravel track. Ignore any turn offs and keep on the track as it curves to the left.
Follow the path as it curves to the left
Take the higher path to the left
This is the path you were on with the green bench and tunnel and the steps up to the castle. When you come to the green bench and tunnel retrace your path back into Sandsend and the car park.
Sandsend beach
Mulgrave Castle
Mulgrave Castle refers to one of three structures on the same property in Lythe, near Whitby, Yorkshire, England. One of these, known as the "old" or "ancient" castle, was by legend founded by Wada, a 6th-century ruler of Hälsingland. The second castle,
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caput of the feudal barony of Mulgrave, was of Norman construction and remained active until destroyed by order of Parliament in 1647. The third is a country house which was constructed by Lady Catherine Darnley and passed in 1718 by marriage into the Phipps family, when her daughter Lady Catherine Annesley married William Phipps. The Phipps family later held the titles of Baron Mulgrave, Earl of Mulgrave and Marquess of Normanby.
Ancient castle
The 19th century "Handbook for Travellers in Yorkshire and for Residents in the County" recounts that the ancient castle was built by Wada, ruler of Hälsingland. Leandin his "Itineraries", circa 1545, refers to several local legends supposing Wada to have been a giant who built many castles and roads in Yorkshire.Second castle
A second castle, which occupied the entire width of the ridge, seems to have been Norman, presumably constructed by Nigel Fossard (d. about 1120), who obtained the property after the Norman Conquest. Fossard is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a tenant of 114 manors, all in Yorkshire, including under Robert, Count of Mortain of "Grif", identified as Mulgrave in the hundred of Langbaurgh. He became himself a tenant-in-chief of the king in 1088, and a holder of the large feudal barony whose caput was t Mulgrave, hence known as the barony of Mulgrave, which according to the Cartae Baronum return made in 1166 comprised 33 1/2 knight's fees.The main approach was located on the west, with two stone towers overlooking the entrance. Moats prohibited approach from the east and ensured that western approach was by means of a drawbridge. Differing levels of land surrounding the containing walls caused the wall to bulge outwards, which required buttressing. Some of the bricks used in the structure are clearly Roman.
Nigel Fossard's son Robert died c.1135, Robert's son William I d. c. 1170, leaving a son William II who died in 1195 leaving an heiress Joan, who brought the barony and castle to her husband Robert de Turnham (d.1211). Their only surviving child and heiress was Isabel de Turnham who brought the barony and castle to Peter de Mauley (or Maulay) (d.1241) to whom she had been granted in marriage by King John on the escheatment of the barony. De Mauley was a native of Poitou, whose marriage to this wealthy heiress is said to have been his reward for having murdered in 1203 Prince Arthur, the son of John's elder brother who threatened his succession to the throne.He was governor of Corfe Castle in Dorset where he acted as jailer of Eleanor, Arthur's sister. Peter I's heir was Peter II de Mauley (1226–1279), who married Joan de Brus (d.1243), one of five sisters of Peter III de Brus (d.1272), feudal baron of Skelton, Yorkshire, who was his brother-in-law, having married Hilary de Mauley, Peter II's sister. In the time of Peter II the barony was held by knight service of supplying two knights in time of war in the king's presence for 40 days per annum. Peter II's heir was Peter III de Mauley (d.1308), who married Nicole de Ghent (d. before 1302), sister and in her issue co-heir (in a 1/3rd share) to Gilbert V de Ghent (d.1298), feudal baron of Folkingham, Lincolnshire.Peter III was summoned to parliament by writ dated 23 June 1296,creating him the 1st Baron de Mauley.Peter III's seal can be seen as one of 72 appended to the Barons' Letter, 1301 to the Pope"sealed at the Parliament of Lincoln in January 1301, and shows him on the reverse in the usual pose for early seals holding sword and shield astride his galloping war-horse, with the tails of his surcoat swept back by the wind. His arms within a heater-shaped escutcheon show a bend with a field diapered with scroll-work, which are blazoned as borne by him on the Falkirk Roll (1298) as: Or, a bend sable.His heir was Peter IV de Mauley (d.1348).Camden states that the first Peter was succeeded by 7 others bearing his name.The castle passed to Sir John Bigot (c.1376-1426/7) of Settrington, Yorks.,on his marriage to Constance de Mauley (c.1385-15/12/1450), eldest daughter & co-heiress of Peter VII de Mauley (d.1378), whose son Peter VIII had died in 1415 without issue, when the Barony de Mauley by writ became extinct. Bigot was 5th in descent from Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk (d.1225).
The property passed to the Radcliffes on the marriage of Dorothy Bigot into that family, before settling in 1625 on Lord Sheffield of Butterwick, later to be titled Earl of Mulgrave by Charles I. There is evidence that the initial construction by the Fossards was updated and altered by subsequent residents. The castle was garrisoned by royalists during the English Civil War. Subsequently, it was dismantled by Parliamentary order in 1647; the lie of bricks from the destruction suggest that gunpowder might have been employed for this purpose.
