Castle of the Week 25 - Skipton Castle
The original Skipton Castle was built in 1090 to
stop the rampaging Scots in their frequent incursions into
northern England .. mostly unsuccessfully. It has been the centre
of several battles during its history and still stands in the
middle of the town, one of the most complete and well preserved
medieval castles in England. The castle was built on top of a
rocky bluff with rising ground to the front and a sheer 100 foot
precipice down to a beck behind. The very first castle was a
primitive palisaded wooden fort but this was soon replaced by a
stone structure.
The earliest remains are from the beginning of
the 1200s, namely a Norman archway and the inner gate-house. At
this time there would have been a bigger moat and a drawbridge,
and there are still traces of a portcullis in the gateway. Water
came into the castle by means of wooden pipes, but when under
siege there was a cistern which collected the rainwater dripping
off the roof.
Skipton Castle was granted to the Clifford family
by Edward II in 1310 and they remained lords of the castle until
1676. Robert de Clifford, first Lord of Skipton, started
enlarging and rebuilding the castle in a concentric style as soon
as it came into his possession. The outer gatehouse dates from
this time. He was killed at Bannockburn in 1314 and, after the
battle, the Scots over-ran the north of England, sacking the town
of Skipton in 1318 although the castle was ignored.
In 1485 Henry, the 10th Lord of Skipton, rebuilt
the living quarters in the Tudor Conduit Court and the Tudor
entrance to the castle and in 1536 his son, a good friend of
Henry VIII, built the Tudor wing in honour of his son’s
marriage to the King’s niece. In the same year, the castle
was besieged by a large army of rebels under the command of
Robert Aske during the Pilgrimage of Grace.The lord remained
loyal to the king and defended the castle after most other
northern castles had surrendered.
During the Civil War, the castle, with a garrison
of 300 men, was a Royalist stronghold (the only one left in the
north) and was besieged for three years. Finally a surrender was
negotiated in 1645 with immense damage having been done and
Oliver Cromwell subsequently ordered the roof to be removed so it
could not be used to garrison troops as he considered it one of
the most serious obstacles to his northern campaign.
Lady Anne Clifford oversaw the extensive repairs
following the war, with the proviso that it should no longer be
defensible, and in 1659 she planted the yew tree in the central
courtyard which is still there today to mark the end of repairs.
There is also an inscription above the main entrance
commemorating the restoration. She was the last Clifford to own
the castle and when she died without an heir in 1676, it passed
to the Earls of Thanet.
In 1956 it was acquired by the present owners and
can be visited. The entrance is through a gatehouse between two
huge drum towers with the motto of the Clifford family –
Desormais (henceforth) above the entrance. The outer bailey is
surrounded by a curtain wall and a moat on three sides. Inside
are the residential buildings of the castle which are slightly
raised and surrounded by a semi-circular curtain wall with six
large round towers.
Write-up & some pictures provided by
GillB*
. Other pictures are from the Skipton Castle site.
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