Lincoln Castle
LINCOLN CASTLE, CASTLE HILL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1388491
- Date first listed:
- 15-Aug-1973
- List Entry Name:
- Lincoln Castle
- Statutory Address:
- LINCOLN CASTLE, CASTLE HILL
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-09-21
- Reference:
- IOE01/12789/24
- Rights:
- © Mr Derek E. Godson. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1388491
- Date first listed:
- 15-Aug-1973
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 20-Dec-1999
- List Entry Name:
- Lincoln Castle
- Statutory Address 1:
- LINCOLN CASTLE, CASTLE HILL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- LINCOLN CASTLE, CASTLE HILL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Lincolnshire
- District:
- Lincoln (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SK9756571832
Details
SK 9771 NW,
1941-1/8/62
LINCOLN,
CASTLE HILL,
Lincoln Castle
(Formerly Listed as: CASTLE HILL Castle remains, Observatory Tower at the Castle)
(Previously Listed as: CASTLE HILL Lodge on north side of entrance to Castle)
15/08/73
GV
I
Castle. 1068, C12, C13, C14, C19. Restored C20. Built for
William I. Coursed and squared stone and herringbone rubble,
with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.
PLAN: quadrangular curtain wall, east gateway and lodges,
observatory tower, Lucy Tower (keep), west gate, Cobb Hall
(north-east angle tower).
EXTERIOR: restored curtain wall has a crenellated parapet and
wall walk. East gateway, C11, extended C14, has a restored
double chamfered gateway and above, semicircular tourelles,
each with a doorway. Between them, a pointed wall. Under the
entrance arch, a C11 tunnel vault. Inside the gateway, a pair
of crenellated mid C19 lodges in the form of a barbican.
Semicircular western ends, two storeys, each with three stone
mullioned double lancets on each floor, with hoodmoulds.
Between them, a pointed archway with crenellated crest.
On the north wall inside the gateway, a reset canted C15 oriel
window with three ogee headed lancets and crocketed pinnacles,
from a house in the High Street opposite St Mary's Guildhall.
Square observatory tower, C11, to south-east, has C14 eastern
additions and extensive mid C19 remodelling. String course,
corbelled and crenellated C19 parapets, single lancet windows.
West side has a garderobe shaft in the form of a buttress,
flanked to left by a pointed doorway with a lancet above it.
East side has square corner towers. South side has sham arrow
slits. Above, to east, a chamfered pointed doorway and a
similarly chamfered ogee headed doorway, C14.
In the south-west corner, a C19 round tower with stepped
rectangular lights.
To the south, the motte and Lucy Tower, late C12, restored
C19. Roofless. Polygonal plan with string course, plain
buttresses, and consolidated parapet.
Projecting north-eastern gateway with billeted round arched
outer opening and segmental inner opening with hoodmould.
South-western minor entrance has a segmental head. To the
south-west, a small roofless chamber.
Square west gatehouse, C11, rebuilt 1233, has a blocked round
headed opening with an inserted doorway flanked by the remains
of barbican walls. Above, two slit windows and a blocked access
doorway to the right. Cobb Hall, C13, reduced in height and
remodelled C19, has a semicircular outer face with slit
windows, and a square inner face with a chamfered doorway
flanked by single slit windows. Crenellated parapet.
INTERIOR: Two storeys with chamfered rib vaulting forming four
vaulted cells in the lower part and six radial cells in the
rounded end of the upper storey. This building was formerly
used as a place of execution, and fittings for the gallows
remain on the outer parapet.
Scheduled Ancient Monument, County No.1.
Listing NGR: SK9756571832
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 485936
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Harris, J, Antram, N, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (1989), 505-506
Hill, F, A Short History of Lincoln (1979), 22-24
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 14-Dec-2025 at 23:35:37.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2025. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2025. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry