A visit to Richmond Castle sees a huge and impressive Norman fortress, built to subdue the north of England soon after the Norman Conquest. Richmond is the best preserved early Norman castle in England and occupies a superb position on a rocky crag over the river Swale.
Visiting Richmond Castle
As an English Heritage property and a prime North Yorkshire tourist attraction a visit to Richmond Castle is surprisingly bereft of facilities. No car park and no cafe but you can picnic on the lawns. Luckily the village can provide those needs and there is also a castle walk around the exterior and another on the opposite bank of the river (neither of which I found out about until after my visit!).
My Experience
I’ll be honest, we rushed Richmond. The castle really needs a good half day to visit and do the exterior walks but our visit to Richmond was only for about an hour. I think I was annoyed that the Norman keep was closed for some reason so we didn’t stay as long as we should have, although we did manage some of the wall walk.
Richmond Castle Photo Gallery
These next photos were taken in the dim and distant past of 2008 and they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!
History
Situated overlooking the valley of the River Swale, the early history of Richmond Castle is somewhat vague. Although attributed to William the Conqueror, it was probably built by Alan Rufus, Count of Penthièvre in the early 1070s. He had commanded the Breton contingent at the Battle of Hastings and was suitably rewarded with extensive estates that had formerly been owned by Edwin, Earl of Mercia (who died in 1071). It was certainly Count Alan who built the curtain wall possibly as early as 1080 as well as the elaborate Gateway that later formed the basis of the Great Keep. He also added Scolland’s Hall in the south corner overlooking the river intended to serve as a lavish residence fit for a person of his status. Unusually Richmond Castle was built in stone from its conception unlike most Norman fortifications that were originally earth and timber structures and later upgraded.
Count Alan died in 1089 and the castle passed through his brothers and eventually to his nephew, another Alan, who took the title Earl of Richmond. A fortuitous marriage also brought his successor, Conan, the title of Duke of Brittany although effective control was ceded to Henry II in exchange for marriage between his daughter and the King’s eldest son, Geoffrey. Conan’s new prestige encouraged him to enhance the Gatehouse into the Great Keep seen today. The original exterior entrance was blocked by stone and a new Gatehouse built. Upon Conan’s death the castle passed to the Crown and the Pipe Rolls suggest that work on the Keep was completed by Henry II.
Records are unclear whether Richmond was still a Royal possession in the early thirteenth century during the reign of Henry’s son, King John. What is certain though is that in 1215 the castle’s Constable, Roald, opposed the King during the First Barons’ War. John attacked Richmond as part of a military campaign in the north and evicted the Constable and imprisoned the garrison. Fifty years later, during the Second Barons’ War, Richmond Castle again opposed the King by the supporting the rebel leader Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.
By the fourteenth century the castle’s heyday was over and the condition of the structure slowly declined. It was granted to Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) in 1478 adding to his other extensive estates in Yorkshire including Helmsey, Middleham, Sheriff Hutton and Skipton. Thereafter the castle drifted into ruin and a survey of 1538 found it to be derelict. Its poor condition saved it from slighting during the Civil War and in 1854 it found a military purpose once more when the Duke of Richmond leased the grounds to the North York militia who built a dedicated barracks. In 1908 the castle became the headquarters of the Northern Territorial Army and during World War I it served as a base for the Non-Combatant Corps – a uniformed service that was compulsory for conscripted men who refused to join the traditional fighting arms of the military. A number of individuals drafted to this organisation refused to co-operate and cells were constructed near the entrance to confine them.
Richmond Castle was decommissioned as a military base at the end of World War I. The dedicated barracks were demolished in 1931 and the whole of the castle was passed into the care of the Ministry of Works.
References
The English Heritage site with information on a visit to Richmond Castle is here.
The history above is copied from Castles Forts Battles site here.