At first sight, this ruin at Coblowe Hillock near the Lower Rivington Reservoir looks like the remains of a mediæval castle. It is however a twentieth century folly. Liverpool Castle in Lever Park in Rivington is actually, a scaled replica of Liverpool's thirteenth century castle.
The original castle was probably erected in the 1230s, under the orders of William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby. It was built to protect King John's new port, and was sited at the top of modern day Lord Street, the highest point in the city which overlooks the Pool. This corresponds to present day Derby Square and the Queen Victoria Monument
SJ3490 : Queen Victoria and the Waterloo Memorial. Most of the original fortification had been destroyed or demolished by the early part of the eighteenth century. The Rivington replica was commissioned in 1912 by William Hesketh Lever (Lord Leverhulme), a philanthropist and the founder of Lever Brothers (now Unilever). It is a folly and was never intended to be completed. It was meant to look like a ruin that had stood for years.
See other images of Liverpool Castle (Rivington)