Trying to find title of children's book I read years ago

[GreenNewDealNow]

Hello everyone,

I wonder if any of you may know the title/author of this book. I read it in the late 80's/early 90's and it involved a castle of some sort. The line I remember the most is 'tish, tish, tish, up the stone steps' (describing the sound of steps on stone) I think the main character was a girl (but may have been a boy) and there was a clown in it at some point too.

I hope this jogs someone's memory!

I capture the castle by Dodie Smith?

It's not that but thank you for taking time to read my post and making a suggestion! I don't think I'll ever find out tbh!

How old would you have been when you read it and do you think it was newly written or a classic from before your time?Love a mystery! Hmmm.

I would have been 6-8 I think. I have no idea if it was new at the time, I only have tiny snippets of memory of it, mainly the 'tish, tish' bit! Thought that particular sentence might jog someone's memory but it may not have been a particularly memorable passage, it just happened to stand out to me as I liked the word.