Kirby Muxloe Castle, Leicestershire

Today, we explore the hidden past to Kirby Muxloe, one of Leicestershire’s unfinished moated 15^th century castles that was left as we wander it today when its owner was executed for treason. So join us as we take a wander and we explore these beautiful castle remains.

It’s owner was William, Lord Hastings, who was the Lord Great Chamberlain of England, was granted a licence from Edward IV to fortify four manor houses in the area of Leicestershire, one of these was at his family seat in Kirby Muxloe which he began to build in 1480 on the site of a previous manor house that was built by the Pakeman family. His instructions were clear; it was to be a moated courtyard residence that would be entered through a great, formidable gatehouse, fortified with towers and battlements, a true sign of the power and wealth that Lord Hastings donned.

Much of what we are able to find out and know about the building of Kirby castle has been down to the survival of the building accounts from October of 1480, 4 years later all of the castles building works grinded to a halt and the castle remained unfinished, for reasons I’ll tell you about later. As we enter through the gatehouse doors you walk inside the castle’s ticket office then onto the garderobe room for the guard on duty, then a short walk across to the other building in the gatehouse shows us the beautiful red bricked guard room. Designed to hold the heavy guns if needed in the line of battle. But the gun ports were some of the very earliest in England to exist; their function and shape allowed the firing lines to be altered and above them are arrow slits for sighting the guns.

The building was planned around a courtyard design, within the existing and impressive moated site and it originally planned to have four towers at each of the corners. Only one of those towers was built and one that still survives and is standing at its original and full height which we get to partially explore later. Connecting the towers would have been a circuit of walls that would have made quite the impression and would have been imposing battlements to surround the site. Within the walls of the courtyard there would have been your usual domestic and residential buildings and a great grand hall.

Amazingly what was unfinished is still impressive in size and looks too, he created a fortified house of red brick surrounded by a picturesque wide moat. Sadly, work on the castle came to an end before it was finished – Lord Hastings met an untimely end when he was executed on 13th July 1483 by the future King Richard III in the Tower of London. It is not known why Richard came to this hasty decision to be rid of his friend and advisor but speculations are that it appears that Richard thought Hastings was plotting against him, sadly Hastings was never given the opportunity of a trial in which to contest any allegations made against him.

Work on the castle ceased immediately when the news came to Kirby of Lord Hastings’ death and although the widow of Lord Hastings was later issued with a special grant of restoring the family’s inheritance, the castle was eventually abandoned and gradually fell into decay, until it was later restored between 1911/13. It has been speculated that Richard’s compassion to Widow Hastings was an indication of his regret over his hasty actions. But that is something we will never know for certain.

We next head up the spiral staircase and into the gatehouses upper room, I have to say the red brick really stands out amongst the black windows and doors. It was more than likely that an unfinished floor was above this upper room as in the four corner turret rooms they feature a ruined staircase leading up.

One thing that is super impressive and worth a look when you get a chance to visit here is to look of for the large slot that would have once housed a portcullis mechanism, this acted a secondary gate to the drawbridge which would have also been operated and used in this area. I think the views here are just so serene and peaceful, no matter the viewpoint you really are greeted and you can see why Hastings made this place less for defense and more for pleasure by its surroundings.

Inside the beautiful west tower, the only surviving tower and the only other part of the castle to actually has a room on all three storeys of its building. All connected by a spiral staircase, each of these rooms had a lavatory and a fireplace, which would almost suggest that the rooms in this building were intended as chambers for senior guests or important members of the household staff. You can still see the remains of the beam holes where the timber beams would have been placed to section off the floors aswell as the entrances to the rooms on the different floors of the tower.

Within the centre of the castle would have been the courtyard and their gardens and even possibly a stable for their horses. The castle and the village of Kirby is a wonderful afternoon spent out, or morning if you’re in the area and want to see this iconic ruin we don’t think you’ll be disappointed. There is ample parking right outside the castle and we’d say the castle is semi accessible to wheelchair users but just sitting amongst the courtyard is worth it to watch the world go by.

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Till Next Time!