Jun 23, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
High on a hillside above the River Esk in Cumbria stands one of the oldest occupied houses in England. Muncaster Castle has been home to the Pennington family for over 800 years. A king once sheltered…
It's about a mile east of the small town of Ravenglass, a coastal village that has been inhabited for thousands of years.
Some of the stones from that fort were eventually used to build the foundations of the castle itself.
Cumbria is a place of mountains and lakes and endless rolling fells, of mist that hangs in the valleys until mid-morning, of stone walls running for miles across the hillside, of villages that look almost identical to how they looked 400 years ago.
Records confirm their presence here from 1208, when a man named Alan de Penitone was granted the lands through a deed from King John.
But some earlier records suggest the family may have been here even before that, possibly as far back as 1026.
There are very few families in the country that can trace their presence in a single house back that far.
The same bloodline has slept under the same roof generation after generation for the better part of a millennium.
The Pennington family had to be ready to defend themselves, so they built a four-storey tower, a tall defence structure connected to a great hall where the family could shelter in times of attack.
In 1316 and again in 1322, Robert the Bruce led Scottish raids deep into Cumbria.
King Henry VI of England, recently defeated at the Battle of Hexham during the Wars of the Roses, took refuge at Moncastor.
Before he left, King Henry presented the family with an ornately decorated glass drinking bowl.
He declared that the Penningtons would always remain at Moncastor so long as the bowl remained intact.
It's about a mile east of the small town of Ravenglass, a coastal village that has been inhabited for thousands of years.
Some of the stones from that fort were eventually used to build the foundations of the castle itself.
Cumbria is a place of mountains and lakes and endless rolling fells, of mist that hangs in the valleys until mid-morning, of stone walls running for miles across the hillside, of villages that look almost identical to how they looked 400 years ago.
Records confirm their presence here from 1208, when a man named Alan de Penitone was granted the lands through a deed from King John.
But some earlier records suggest the family may have been here even before that, possibly as far back as 1026.
There are very few families in the country that can trace their presence in a single house back that far.
The same bloodline has slept under the same roof generation after generation for the better part of a millennium.
The Pennington family had to be ready to defend themselves, so they built a four-storey tower, a tall defence structure connected to a great hall where the family could shelter in times of attack.
In 1316 and again in 1322, Robert the Bruce led Scottish raids deep into Cumbria.
King Henry VI of England, recently defeated at the Battle of Hexham during the Wars of the Roses, took refuge at Moncastor.
Before he left, King Henry presented the family with an ornately decorated glass drinking bowl.
He declared that the Penningtons would always remain at Moncastor so long as the bowl remained intact.
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