Jacobite rebels looted this 15th-century pele tower in 1745, all that survives of the Wybergh family's manor house
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Pele towers like this one were small fortified towers typical of the unsettled Anglo-Scottish border country, built as a defensible retreat within a family’s wider home. This one went up around 1475 for the Wybergh family, more than a century after the rest of Clifton Hall, and it’s the only piece of the old manor left standing. Just before the Battle of Clifton Moor in December 1745, soldiers from Bonnie Prince Charlie’s retreating army occupied and looted the hall. The rest of the house was pulled down in the early 1800s to make way for a farmhouse, leaving the tower doing duty as a farm building right up until it passed into state care in 1973. You reach it on foot from Clifton village, along a path that crosses fields and a few tall stiles; it’s a natural stop alongside Brougham Castle and Roman fort, just over a mile north.
