Number 22 - Spofforth Castle
So far, on this quest, Spofforth is right up there in my top 3 (along with Stirling and Nunney castles).
The castle is in the middle of nowhere, if you weren't seeking it out, I doubt you'd just come across it. It's managed by the English Heritage and apparently building started in the 13th century. It was essentially built to be a home and manor house for a powerful family in the area.
We parked in the village and wandered up the path to find it. It is most definitely a ruin, but a beautiful one and you can still walk round.
There are some steps which means you can access the lower ground floor. It was fun imagining where the inhabitants would have had dinner and things.
It was amazing to see that some of the beautiful detail round the windows still existed, I love that kind of thing. How does it survive through all the battles?
While we were having a look round we came across a hole in the wall. Inside we found a little note, which said
'Dear Fairys, I'm in year four now. The reason I'm writing is because I haven't sened a note for a while. From Pernille.' Just so you can see the proof, here is a photo of it:
How absolutely adorable! I used to love the idea that fairies and gnomes lived in structures like this and spread their magic around, and little Pernille is very much thinking that too. We probably should have written back, but we didn't have a pen.... or any fairy dust.
Cost: free
Hints and tips: Wear some sturdy shoes as the ground is quite uneven and could be muddy in wet weather.
Number 21 - Knaresborough castle
We visited Knaresborough castle the day after staying at Lumley castle overnight. So we were on a high and felt like royalty.
Knaresborough castle was in the middle of the town, which looked quite sweet, but with a 6 hour drive ahead of us, we didn't have time to mess around.
Large parts of the castle can be accessed from the high street. The only bit you need to pay for is to go into the tower. We decided against this but I'm sure it's very good.
Knaresborough was a community building, providing a safe
place for people to go when they were under attack, and they also made decisions there that affected residents of the town. It was a Centre for Justice, which
all sounds very nice. At one point in history, the MPs wanted the castle
dismantled, but the people from the town managed to persuade them to keep the
King's Tower and use it as a prison.
It's at the top of a large cliff and overlooks the river Nidd with really lovely views. The whole site was quite small, with a lovely patch of garden. So you don't need to allocate loads of time to it, but it's worth seeing.
There were some enormous ravens chained to the wall. The sign said it was for their own good, as they are DANGEROUS, and we were told not to feed them. They looked happy enough.
Costs: Well we saw most of it and wandered round for free. Not sure how much it is to go inside the tower.
Hints and tips: Don't feed the ravens!
Want to find out about more of our castle adventures, take a look at my blog.
Number 17 - Pontefract Castle
We'd already seen three castles (Ashby de la Zouche, Bolsover and Sandal) on this day and were on our way to stay in one overnight, so Pontefract was the penultimate stop after a long day. There wasn't much of the castle left to see, though at the entrance there was a rather lovely herb garden that I took quite a fancy to.
All that was really left of this ruin, was a long wall encompassing quite a good size area. We wandered round the edge and looked down to the town below.
Apparently Pontefract castle was really frightening when it was all in one piece, but hard to imagine that now with so little of it left.
Costs: free
Hints and tips: You wouldn't need long to get round this castle. Perhaps taking a little sword and shield to entertain yourself could be a good idea.
Number 16 - Sandal Castle
Oh Sandal. I am sorry to say but you weren't great, especially compared to Ashby De la Zouche which we saw earlier in the same day.
The weather didn't help. but basically we parked up, walked over a hill and were presented with a wall. That was pretty much it. There was also a group of young gentleman smoking what I can only assume was a herb based substance. This made getting our photo a bit tricky, but we managed it.
The castle is best known for the Battle of Wakefield which was fought in 1460 during the War of the Roses. What we saw were the remains of the 13th century stone castle. You could walk to the top of a motte bailey as well and there were good views from that vantage point.
We didn't call into the visitors centre, though there was one and that may well have been really good. So if I went back, I would pop in there.
Cost: free
Hints and tips: it won't take you long to see and I suppose if the weather was nice you could have a picnic. It's also in a nice part of England so there is lots nearby to see and do.
