THE cause of a fire that left a castle with millions of pounds of damage may not be known until the end of this month at the earliest.

Firefighters have been unable to investigate the badly damaged seat of the blaze, at Allerton Castle, near Knaresborough.

The fire broke out nearly two months ago and destroyed a third of the building.

But North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service group manager Trevor Lund said that plans to construct an 80ft crane to allow crews to examine the chimney - where the fire is believed to have started - have been hit by problems.

Once the giant crane was built, he said, fibre-optic equipment would be used to look for safety defects.