Hoghton Tower

About this place

Hoghton Tower has stood on its hilltop site in Lancashire since the de Hoghton family built the present house in around 1560–65, though the family's connection with the estate stretches back to at least the twelfth century.

The fortified manor house commands wide views across the Lancashire plain, visible for miles in every direction.

Its most celebrated moment came in 1617, when James I visited and reputedly knighted a loin of beef at the dining table — a story long told to explain the word sirloin, though scholars consider this a myth and trace the word instead to the French surlonge.

The house remains in private family ownership and is open to the public on selected days.