Skipton Castle - Intact Medieval Fortress in the Yorkshire Dales

On New Year's Day I visited Skipton Castle. Although I've often seen it from the High Street this was the first time I'd actually looked around it. What an interesting place!

With nine hundred years of history there is no shortage of angles to follow up after the visit, and since then I've spent several hours happily reading the history of its construction and the noble families that have lived there.

Once inside the Outer Gatehouse with its four round towers the castle is immediately ahead, and there are two main parts to it. The photo here shows mostly the 16th century Tudor section with its long hall and the octagonal tower at the far end. This was built when the then Lord Clifford married a neice of Henry VIII and wanted to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed. Today it is still a family home and this part is not open to visitors.

The day was wet and dull, and I had not taken my better camera so this is a hurriedly taken snap on my phone. I wish I'd turned around a little to the left and caught more of the medieval fortress. The South-Eastern drum tower is visible, though. There are several (five or six, I should check) of these with interconnecting structures, incorporating the ultimate in the defensive military technology of the period. The walls are over ten feet thick and, thanks to the restoration work of Lady Anne Clifford after the 17th century Civil War plus more recent work by the present family who have owned it since the 1950s, there is a fully intact roof.

Visitors can walk around at their leisure, exploring the many rooms. They are not furnished but between the information boards in each room and the guide sheet (or even better, the colour booklet available for a token price on top of the admission fee) one's imagination can picture the life in this place centuries ago - although it is more difficult to imagine what things must have been like during the 3-year siege in the 1640s.

The Gift Shop has several very interesting volumes on the castle's history if you're interested in following up further and linking Skipton into the broader history of the North of England.

If you get the chance while in the Yorkshire Dales take a look at Skipton Castle.