Dilston Castle was originally an early 12th century defensible manor house, founded by the lords of Dyvelston and Tyndale. Built against the steep escarpment formed by the Devil's Water, Sir William Claxton founded the stone castle in the early 15th century. Standing alongside a detached hall, within a larger defended enclosure, he added a three storey solar tower, with a barrel-vaulted basement pierced by gun-loops. In the late 15th century, the Cartingtons may have added the square southern turret, with Sir George Radcliffe adding the northern four storey extension, to effect a mid 16th century L-plan tower house. In 1616, Sir Francis Radcliffe incorporate the castle in the construction of Dilston Hall, of which only the chapel and an arched entrance gate of the enclosed forecourt survives. In 1710, James Radcliffe, the third Earl of Derwentwater pulled down the Elizabethen-Jacobean house and began a Queen Anne mansion on the site but following his execution in 1715, for his part in the Jacobite Rebellion, its construction was never completed. Bestowed upon Trustees of Greenwich Hospital in 1731, the grand mansion was demolished, leaving the castle isolated. A mile north-east is Vicars Pele.