Places of interest or attractions that are completely, or partially, destroyed, in a state of decay, collapse or otherwise no longer complete.
Scarborough Castle dominates the Victorian Yorkshire seaside resort from a massive precipitous headland bulging up from the North Sea. The fortress has a fascinating three and a half thousand year, often bloody, story to tell, but one of its more dubious charms seems to be that the ghost of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, and
Who haunts Scarborough Castle? Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
We tend to see modern towns and villages as permanent things. They may change, but it’s hard to imagine the landscape without them and easy to take it for granted that they will last forever. Yet the world is littered with places that have been lost along the way – abandoned communities, traces of old
I’m gazing up through the empty keep, where long-dead feet once paced across floors that have themselves long-since vanished, rotted away. Here’s Brougham Castle, scenically sitting on the south bank of the River Eamont a couple of miles outside Penrith, just off the A66. Someone should write a song about that road… get your kicks,
Two thousand years at Brougham Castle Read More »
North West England
The guy behind me, approaching the rather unwelcoming gatehouse, grumbled, somewhat disparagingly, “Well, it’s just a ruin.” He was evidently a reluctant visitor to Helmsley Castle, poor soul. He was half-right – Helmsley Castle is a ruin – and Britain does have more than a few wrecked castles. Maybe our fellow-traveller was merely out-ruined, couldn’t
Helmsley Castle and a canter through British history Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
So far, England has only had one King John, and he was a bad ‘un. However many times some historian suggests that this much-maligned monarch has been misrepresented, misunderstood, or was at least no worse than any other medieval king, another historian shouts out that John was as bad as they got. In fact, by
The castle at Newark-on-Trent Read More »
East Midlands
Rosslyn Castle can’t seem to make up its mind how it wants to be spelt. It appears as both Roslin and Rosslyn – clearly the same name; the nearby village is Roslin and the infamous Chapel is invariably Rosslyn. In any event, Rosslyn Castle is often overlooked by those making a pilgrimage to the better-known
Stay at Rosslyn Castle Read More »
Scotland
It’s sometimes easy to forget that London is a Roman creation. A site occupying a good position on the north bank of the tidal Thames, which offered deep enough anchorage for ocean-going vessels and which was narrow enough to bridge. Within 20 years of the invasion of 43AD, London was sufficiently large and important to
Art and the amphitheatre Read More »
London
Bodiam Castle was ostensibly built to help defend England from the French. Now it just sits there, looking beautiful, a teeny bit brooding, and very medieval. From a distance, you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s still a functioning fortress, that a verray parfit gentil knyght is going to come galloping across the drawbridge
Beautiful Bodiam Castle Read More »
South East
It’s hard to forget your first sight of Linlithgow Palace. Off the merkat, up cobbled Kirkgate, past St Michael’s, through the impressive outer gateway – and the palace fills your vision. It is massive, literally awesome, so obviously a ruinous shell – and yet there’s a niggling hint of what it once was, or might
Linlithgow – Scotland’s Royal Pleasure Palace Read More »
Scotland
Though undeniably a ruin, and built about 800 years ago, Yorkshire’s Middleham Castle is a place where the past doesn’t seem that far away. I am sure this is some kind of subliminal sensation due to the personalities associated with Middleham, particularly Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, known to history as Warwick the Kingmaker,
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Yorkshire and the Humber
Is Berry Pomeroy one of the most haunted castles in Britain? It seems that either the white or the blue woman-spirit will get you. The White Lady is reputed to be the ghost of the beautiful Lady Margaret Pomeroy, imprisoned by her jealous (and less attractive) sister Eleanor for the crime of being in love
Berry Pomeroy Castle Read More »
South West
There are two villages called Warton in Lancashire, both of them with connections across the Pond. One, just west of Preston, is known for the airfield used by the United States Army Air Forces during World War Two. Further north, the other Warton nudges the border with Cumbria. And there, inside the medieval parish church
Imagine if George Washington had been Lancastrian Read More »
North West England