Staward Pele was originally an early 14th century timber blockhouse and palisaded pele, founded by Antony de Lucy of Langley. Built on the dramatic site of a Roman temple, this impregnable fortress stands on an oval promontory, which is accessed along a narrow causeway. In 1326 King Edward II, annexed the pele and Thomas de Featherstonehaugh, keeper of Tynedale offered to demolish the pele and build the king a castle. The site passed to Queen Phillippa in 1337 and then to her son Edmund of Langley, duke of York, in 1385 it was rented to Hexham Priory, who then held it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In the 18th century the pele was still a substantial ruin and was occupied by Dickey of Kingswood, a notorious border reiver. The neck of the promontory was cut off by a ditched wall, of which the north-east angle of a gatehouse remains. Surviving at the end of the promontory is a large ditch, with three sides of a large keep made of beautifully dressed stone. 3 miles north-east is Langley Castle and 7 miles south is Ninebanks Tower.