Jacey Bedford's Journal

Had a meeting at Skipton Castle on Sunday. It's absolutely my favourite castle ever. It's small - a very modest footprint - and fully roofed and floored so you can wander round most of it. In fact it feels like you culd actually just bring your suitcase and move in. Because it was a business meeting I didn't get the opportunity to take a lot of photos, just a few snaps on the iTouch. The upside was that we were shown round by the grandson of the chap who bought the place in the 1950s. Yes, it's privately owned, not funded by English Heritage or anything.

The Fattorini Family have done an enormous amount of restoration - most recently re-roofing the great hall so it's weatherproof - at enormous expense, but it's oh-so worth it.

There was a timber stronghold here just after the Norman Conquest but the stone castle was built by the Cliffords after it was granted in 1310 by Edward II. It was the last surviving Royalist bastion in the north during the Civil War, finally giving in in 1645 after a 3 year siege. Cromwell had it slighted, but Lady Ann Clifford had it rebuilt again. She had the yew tree planted in the central courtyard which is such a distinctive feature today.

The pics only give a flavour. I heartily recommend a visit if you're in the area.

The castle is just above the town centre and an easy walk from the car parks in the town. There's a fabulous gatehouse and then it opens up on to this...

This is the new (Elizabethan) entrance. The round towers are part of the original structure and the original entrance is hidden behind it. Rather than going up steps and turning right, the drawbrigde was left to right on a straight through path



This is the conduit court, the small enclosed courtyard that's the heart of the medieval castle itself, complete with the ancient yew planted by Lady Anne some 350 years ago. After the slighting by cromwell the rebuilding involved replacing some of the external arrow slits with windows.


From the Conduit Court there are extenal steps up to the great hall. The Norman arch on the left is the entrance from both Elizabethan extension on the outside and the original drawbridge. You can still see where the drawbridge and portcullis went. Beautiful medieval engineering.

And here's a view of the Conduit Court from inside the 'new' kitchen on ground level. There's an earlier very well preserved Medieval kitchen on the upper level next to the Great Hall which in itself may have been the original great hall of the castle (with the kitchen then outside, of course).